• Texas woman charged with offering 3-year-old son for adoption on Craigslist

    Stephanie Christine Redus of Huffman, Texas, was scheduled back in court next week on charges that she put her son up for adoption on Craigslist. Philip Mena of NBC station KPRC of Houston reports.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    A Texas woman was free on bail Wednesday on charges that she offered her 3-year-old son up for adoption on Craigslist to ease her anxiety.

    The woman, Stephanie Christine Redus, of Huffman, near Houston, was freed Tuesday after she posted $1,000 bond on a state charge of advertising the placement of a child, a misdemeanor. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Houston next week.

    No one answered the doorbell when a reporter went to Redus' home in Huffman this week, NBC station KPRC of Houston reported.

    Court records say Redus, 29, posted the ad, which has been removed from Craigslist, on May 1. It read:

    Hi. I'm trying to adopt out my 3yr old son. I'm not in a good place in my life and don't feel like I can care for him properly but I don't know where to start. If you or know anyone who is interested in caring for him please let me know. I'm a single mom and can't do this. Thanks, Desperate.


    Redus got several responses, some of which she replied to, the complaint says. One of them was from Deon Thomas — who turned out to be a Houston police officer.

    The complaint alleges that Redus went so far as to ask one prospective parent for a picture and information about his other children. But Redus told investigators she never really intended to give up her son up, saying she was off her depression and anxiety medications at the time.

    The reason she was off the medications?

    She's pregnant again, according to court records.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

  • Kansas snubs lesbian co-parent in Craigslist sperm donor case, attorneys say

    In 2009, William Marotta donated sperm, free of charge, to a lesbian couple. Though Marotta signed a contract giving up financial responsibility for the child, the state of Kansas is now suing him for support after one of the mothers applied for financial assistance. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A man who donated sperm to a pair of lesbians so they could start a family is now being hounded for child support by the state of Kansas — which refuses to recognize the same-sex coupling.

    But William Marotta's attorneys want the now-separated lesbian co-parent to be involved in a lawsuit in which the state claims he is the legal father of a 3-year-old girl.

    The state of Kansas contends that Marotta is legally responsible for the girl conceived after he responded to a Craigslist ad placed by the lesbian couple for sperm donation.

    Kansas is seeking some $6,000 in back child support.


    The ad was placed by Jennifer Schreiner and Angela Bauer more than three years ago with the idea that Marotta, a married mechanic  from Topeka, would not be involved in the child’s life or bear any responsibility for her upbringing.

    Marotta even signed a contract waiving parental rights and responsibilities — which he thought absolved him from any financial obligations for the child.

    In fact, he didn’t even accept the $50 payment offered from Schreiner, who gave birth to the girl, and Bauer, Schreiner’s partner at the time.

    The state of Kansas, however, sees it differently. The Sunflower State contends that the contract is invalid because a Kansas law requires that a licensed physician perform any artificial insemination — which was not the case with Schreiner.

    Only Marotta and the birth mother, Schreiner, are party to the suit.

    This week, attorneys for Bauer and Marotta asked a judge to reconsider a ruling that keeps Bauer out of the case as a full-fledged participant.

    Bauer, they argue, who cares for the girl about half the time and signed the sperm donor agreement at issue, should be fully involved.

    “The human beings in this case want all the adults in the case to make a determination for what is in the best interest of the child,” Joseph Booth, an attorney representing Bauer, told NBC News. 

    Booth said a recent Kansas high court case, Frazier v. Gouschaal, established that a nonbiological mother of children in a same-sex relationship has the same rights as a biological mother.

    “The only basis to prevent Angela Bauer from the full status as a party is that she is female,” Booth wrote.

    Benoit Swinnen, Marotta’s attorney, filed a similar motion on Tuesday seeking to make Bauer a “necessary party” or dismiss the case.

    Swinnen claims the whole case is political, since neither of the lesbian parents has sought Marotta’s involvement and the money involved is “peanuts.”

    “(The state) will do anything to push their traditional notion of families and suppress any nontraditional type of parenting,” Swinnen told NBC News. “It runs so contrary to the way the country is going.”

    Swinnen’s Shawnee County District Court filing said Bauer should be allowed to intervene in the case and be recognized as the legal parent of the girl, not his client.

    Schreiner as the birth parent has custody of the girl, but according to both attorneys Bauer takes care of the girl during the day with Schneiner caring for her in the evenings. Bauer and Scheiner have even drawn up a parenting plan for the girl, which Booth said, if and when it is approved by a court, would legally resolve issues of custody and financial support.

    The state became involved in the case when the couple's relationship fell apart and the two broke up, and one of them got sick. They applied for state health insurance for the girl. The Kansas Department for Children and Families demanded they reveal the name of the sperm donor, which they eventually did, reluctantly.

    The state then filed the child support claim against Marotta in October 2012.

    Angela de Rocha, the communication director for Kansas’ DCF, wasn’t immediately available to comment on this week's filings, but in January she explained Kansas’ rationale for the lawsuit:

    “In cases where the parties do not go through a licensed physician or a clinic, there remains the question of who actually is the father of the child or children. In such cases, DCF is required by statute to establish paternity and then pursue child support from the non-custodial parent,” Rocha said in a statement.

    On Tuesday, District Court Judge Mary Mattivi appointed Jennifer Berger, a family law attorney, to represent Jennifer Schreiner.

    Related: Hey, sperm donor, don't answer that Craigslist ad!

  • Ohio judge postpones life or death decision on Craigslist killer

    Mike Cardew / Akron Beacon Journal Pool via AP

    Richard Beasley smiles at his sister Sherri Beasley as he is wheeled into Summit County Common Pleas Judge Lynne S. Callahan's courtroom in Akron, Ohio, on Feb 27, 2013.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Faced with a jury’s recommendation to hand down the death penalty, an Ohio judge will now decide on Thursday, April 4 the fate of the triple killer who lured his victims with Craigslist job offers.

    A sentence was expected Tuesday afternoon for 53-year-old Richard Beasley, but Judge Lynn Callahan in Akron said unavoidable complications forced officials to move the sentencing to a later date. 

    Beasley, a self-styled street preacher, was convicted last week, found guilty on 26 counts, including nine counts of aggravated murder.

    While the jury for the case voted and urged Beasley’s execution, Callahan has the option of reducing the sentence to life in prison. That option could include a chance for parole after 25 or 30 years.

    Beasley killed three men and shot another who responded to bogus ads on Craigslist that promised a job as a caretaker on a large farm in Noble County, Ohio. One was killed near Akron and two others were killed at the southeast Ohio farm.

    The slain men were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon. Geiger and Pauley were both buried in shallow graves in a wooded area in Caldwell, Ohio.

    The survivor, Scott Davis, testified that he heard the click of a gun as he walked in front of Beasley at the reputed job site. Davis, who was shot in the arm, said he knocked the weapon aside, fled in to the woods and tipped police.

    Beasley's teenage co-defendant Brogan Rafferty, who was 16 at the time of the crimes in 2011, was sentenced by the same judge last year to life without parole. Because of his age, he wasn't eligible for the death penalty.

    In an opening statement during the sentencing phase of the trial last week, prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel said the "enormous" weight of Beasley's crimes should be considered in deciding on life or death.

    Beasley didn't take the stand at the trial's sentencing phase to appeal for mercy. His attorneys instead called a friend of Beasley, a psychologist and his mother, who begged jurors to spare her son's life.  

    Beasley had previously served several years in prison on a burglary conviction. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Despite pleas by Craigslist killer's mother, Ohio jury recommends death penalty

    An Ohio jury convicts a man accused of luring job seekers to a remote farm where they were robbed and killed. WKYC's Sara Shookman reports.

    By Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press

    Begging to have jurors spare her son's life, the mother of a triple killer who lured his victims with Craigslist job offers testified Wednesday that he had a troubled childhood and suffered physical and sexual abuse.

    "I love Richard with all my heart," a teary-eyed Carol Beasley testified during the sentencing phase of the trial of her son, 53-year-old Richard Beasley. He was convicted last week of killing three men and wounding a fourth, all lured with offers of farmhand jobs in southeast Ohio in 2011.

    But despite the emotional plea, the jury on Wednesday evening recommended the death penalty for Beasely. Other options were life in prison without the chance of parole or life with a chance for parole after 25 or 30 years.

    Judge Lynne Callahan, who has final say in Beasley's fate, said on Wednesday she will sentence him on March 26.

     


    Beasley's co-defendant, then 16 years old, is too young to face the death penalty. Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on his conviction last year.

    In an opening statement at the sentencing part on Wednesday, prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel said the "enormous" weight of Beasley's crimes should be considered in deciding on life or death.

    The defense responded by calling witnesses to portray Beasley sympathetically. As his mother testified, Beasley slumped forward, his chin on his chest and his right hand covering his eyes.

    She described a difficult childhood for her son, with a verbally and physically abusive stepfather whom Carol Beasley characterized as a mean drunk.

    She testified that she learned only within the past year that her son had been sexually abused by neighborhood youngsters when he was a boy. She had known that the boys had forced him to remove his pants in a large drainage pipe but hadn't known about the abuse at the time, she said.

    Phil Masturzo / AP file

    Carol Beasley, mother of convicted murderer Richard Beasley, leaves the Summit County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Akron, Ohio. Richard Beasley was found guilty with aggravated murder in the killing two men from Ohio and one from Norfolk, Va. by luring them with Craigslist job offers.

    "I always felt there was much more than he told me," she testified. Her son apparently kept the abuse secret out of fear he would be held responsible for it, the mother said.

    Her first husband neglected Richard and her, Carol Beasley testified, and her second husband broke dishes and a window while drinking and whipped Richard as a toddler.

    "Richard was very mistreated by him," she testified.

    Carol Beasley testified that Richard and the couple's own two daughters would be put to bed early and sometimes were sent to relatives for the weekend to avoid contact with the father.

    "Everybody was afraid when he came home," she said.

    The defense also called a psychologist, John Fabian, who testified that Beasley suffers from depression, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem and a feeling of isolation, all possible results of a troubled, abusive childhood.

    "These are all potential mitigating factors" in favor of leniency, Fabian testified.

    Fabian said Beasley's issues should be considered in multi-generational terms involving him and his family life. "This is all his personality development," he said.

    One of Beasley's victims was killed near Akron, and the others were shot at a southeast Ohio farm during bogus job interviews.

    The slain men were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon.

    The survivor, Scott Davis, testified that he heard the click of a gun as he walked in front of Beasley at the reputed job site. Davis, who was shot in an arm, knocked the weapon aside, fled into the woods and tipped police.

    Beasley, who returned to Ohio from Texas in 2004 after serving several years in prison on a burglary conviction, testified that he met with Davis and Davis had pulled a gun in retaliation for Beasley serving as a police informant.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Former preacher found guilty in Ohio Craigslist murder case

    Pool / REUTERS

    Richard Beasley is wheeled into court in Akron, Ohio, on March 6. On Tuesday he was found guilty of aggravated murder of three men who prosecutors say were lured to their deaths with job ads placed on Craigslist.

    By Kim Palmer, Reuters

    AKRON, Ohio - A street preacher was found guilty Tuesday of murdering three down-on-their-luck men who answered an ad for a non-existent job on Craigslist in 2011.

    A jury deliberated for about 12 hours before returning the verdict against Richard Beasley, 53, who was accused of kidnapping and murdering David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia; Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio.

    The jury convicted Beasley of aggravated murder and kidnapping in the deaths of all three men.

    It also convicted him of the attempted murder of Scott Davis, a South Carolina man who answered the Craigslist ad and was shot in the arm while escaping after meeting Beasley and his teenage accomplice, Brogan Rafferty.

    Rafferty, 18, was tried as an adult and sentenced in November to life in prison without parole for his role in the deadly scheme. He was 16 years old at the time of the crimes and not subject to the death penalty.

    Richard Beasley was found guilty on all counts including aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, aggravated robbery, grand and petty theft and ID theft.

    Beasley, wearing a dark sport coat and tie and sitting in his wheelchair, slumped visibly as the verdicts were read and held his head in his hands.

    The jurors, who got Beasley's case late on Monday, will reconvene on March 20 to begin to consider whether to recommend the death penalty.


    Beasley, who testified in his own defense, denied any involvement in the killings. He said Davis, who was 48 when he was shot and became a key prosecution witness during the trial, had been sent to kill him by a motorcycle gang he was infiltrating for the police as a confidential informant.

    Prosecutors maintained that Beasley, an ex-convict and former street preacher, was the mastermind and triggerman in the scheme. They said Beasley wanted to rob his victims and steal their identities.

    Summer Rowley, a friend of Ralph Geiger, said she was satisfied with Tuesday's verdict but less interested in the possibility of a death sentence in the case.

    "It doesn't matter to me," she said. It won't bring him back."

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Hey, sperm donor, don't answer that Craigslist ad!

    In 2009, William Morotta donated sperm, free of charge, to a lesbian couple. Though Morotta signed a contract giving up financial responsibility for the child, the state of Kansas is now suing him for support after one of the mothers applied for financial assistance. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A man who responded to an online ad for sperm and now faces thousands of dollars in child support is living proof of the dangers of donating outside of a sperm bank.

    "The biggest piece of advice is just to not do it," said Ashley Nicole Reeve, a Texas-based attorney practicing in family law and reproductive technology law. "I don't know that there is any sure way legally to protect yourself."


    With reproductive technology advancing more quickly than the law that governs it, donors who go through less-than-official channels can find themselves in a gray area when it comes to child support.

    "The medical technology really has gone further than what the law has protected at this point. People are using sperm donors and egg donors and surrogates more and more, and the law really hasn't caught up just yet," she said. 

    Just ask William Marotta, a married 46-year-old mechanic from Topeka, Kansas, who is being asked by the state to pay $6,000 in child support after he donated sperm to a couple in his town.

    Marotta had a contract absolving him of parental responsibility and says he has no contact with the child, but because he donated his sperm outside of a licensed institution, the state has gotten involved.

    "No good deed goes unpunished," Marotta told TODAY. "With what I know now, I don't think I would have been the sperm donor."

    Marotta replied to a Craigslist ad in 2009 from a local couple who said they wanted to find a sperm donor. They were offering $50. After discussing it with his wife, Marotta volunteered, turning down the cash Jennifer Schreiner and her partner, Angela Bauer, were offering in exchange.

    Marotta signed a written agreement that relinquished him of parental rights and held him harmless "for any child support payments demanded of him by any other person or entity, public or private ... regardless of the circumstances or said demand,” according to The Topeka Capital-Journal.

    Schreiner became pregnant with the sperm, and she and Bauer -- who are not married because Kansas does not recognize same-sex unions -- co-parented the baby girl. Child support only came up when the two women broke off their relationship, one of them got sick, and they applied for state services for the girl. The Kansas Department for Children and Families demanded they tell them the donor's name, which Schreiner and Bauer eventually gave, reluctantly.

    The state filed a child-support claim for more than $6,000 against Marotta this past October.

    "We never intended for him to financially support her. That was our responsibility as her two parents," Bauer told TODAY on Thursday. "I have the joy of raising her and loving her every single day and it’s because of William that I have that."

    "This is not at all what we signed up for," Marotta's wife, Kimberly, told TODAY.

    But according to the Kansas Department of Children and Families, it's exactly what they signed up for when Marotta artificially inseminated Schreiner in her house. 

    “In cases where the parties do not go through a licensed physician or a clinic, there remains the question of who actually is the father of the child or children. In such cases, DCF is required by statue to establish paternity and then pursue child support from the non-custodial parent,” Angela de Rocha, director of communications, said in a statement. 

    Ben Swinnen, whose Topeka firm will represent Marotta at his Jan. 8 hearing, said Marotta has no way to pay for the child support costs, never mind his unexpected legal fees.

    "The cost of defending him is way beyond his means. The issue is way beyond him and the cost is way beyond his means. It goes much further than his particular case and it costs much more than he can afford," Swinnen said.

    Swinnen said his client doesn't have any contact with the daughter who was born. As for the contract Marotta signed at the time of his donation, Swinnen said, "It appears to me like it was found on the Internet by the two women, but I cannot confirm that. It's just my assumption," he said. 

    Sperm banks typically protect donors through state parenting shield laws, but less straightforward cases have arisen in the past:

    •  In 2007, Ronnie Coleman of an Arlington, Texas, agreed to donate sperm to a sperm bank for a friend, but told her he didn't want to be the father to any child who was born, according the Texas Star-Telegram. Yet in 2008, the mother filed a paternity suit against him, forcing him to pay thousands in child support until an appeals court ruled four years later that even though the donor was known to the mother, she shouldn't force him to pay.
    • In Vermont, a man who donated sperm to a female friend was required to pay child support because he maintained a relationship with the children. One of the mothers told The Associated Press in 2007, "Part of the decision came down because he was so involved with them. It wasn't that he went to the (sperm) bank and that was it. They called him Papa."
    • In New York, a married doctor agreed to donate sperm to a young resident and her partner in the late 1980s, only to be asked 18 years later for child support, the New York Post reported. The court was able to nail him when they found he was sending money and cards to the child, which he would sign “Dad” or “Daddy.” The biological father’s name was also on the birth certificate.
    • A Massachusetts court ruled this year that a Nigerian immigrant had to pay child support for twins conceived through artificial insemination a year after he and his wife had separated, the Patriot Ledger reported.
    • But in Washington state, the Court of Appeals ruled in 2004 that a donor can’t be required to pay child support unless he and the mother have signed an explicit contract.

    Swinnen admits his client should have thought through his decision a bit more before proceeding.

    "Hindsight is 20/20. He could have consulted a lawyer, explored the legal implications," he said. 

    NBC's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.

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  • Craigslist case: California couple shot while trying to sell iPhone

    By R. Stickney, NBCSanDiego.com

    SAN DIEGO -- Two people were shot in San Diego late Monday after meeting a potential buyer who was responding to a Craigslist advertisement.

    The shooting victims posted an ad to sell an iPhone on the popular online website and then arranged to meet a prospective buyer in a McDonald’s parking lot.

    When the two parties met, the buyer got into the couple’s BMW and then pulled a gun on the sellers.

    “During the potential sale of that cellphone, the suspect produced a gun and tried to rob them of the cellphone and cash,” San Diego police Lt. Paul Rorrison said.

    More news from NBCSanDiego.com

    There was a struggle inside the vehicle between the three people and the gun fired, officials said.

    The sellers, a man and a woman, each suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and drove themselves to a hospital.

    Investigators have not released a suspect description.

    A similar crime occurred in Paradise Hills more than a year ago, but instead of suffering superficial wounds, the victim was shot and killed.

    Rashon Abernathy, 18, Seandell Jones, 19, and Shaquille Jordan, 18, were convicted last month in the May 2011 death of Garrett Berki, 18, of Pacific Beach.

    The three teenagers lured Berki with a Craigslist ad offering a laptop computer then robbed him of $600 and drove away. After Berki chased after the suspects, he was shot sitting behind the wheel of his car.

    A jury convicted the teens of first-degree murder, robbery and shooting.

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  • Teen convicted in fake Craigslist ad killings in Ohio

    Phil Masturzo / AP file

    Brogan Rafferty, shown here heading into court on Oct. 25, was convicted on Tuesday of murder and other counts in the so-called Craigslist killings in Ohio.

    A jury in Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday found a 17-year-old guilty of aggravated murder and other counts for his role in the slayings of three men who were lured to the state by phony Craigslist job ads.


    Brogan Rafferty was convicted on all counts except Count 42, which was ID fraud, WKYC-TV reported.

    Authorities say Rafferty, of Stow, helped Richard Beasley, of Akron, lure four victims at separate times with bogus Craigslist job offers to a nonexistent cattle farm in rural Noble County in southeast Ohio; they say the motive was robbery. Authorities say Beasley shot and killed three of the men; the fourth victim was shot in the arm and survived.

    Rafferty told the court he went along with the plot because he feared Beasley would kill him too.

    "Go with it or die," Rafferty said, when asked if he thought he had any choice in taking part in the murders, according to WKYC.

    Beasley, 53, is scheduled for trial in January. He has pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if convicted. As a juvenile, Rafferty can't be sentenced to death; he faces life in prison without chance of parole.

    In closing arguments last week, prosecutors portrayed Rafferty as someone who knew exactly what he was doing and ignored opportunities to go to police.

    Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen shows how easy it is to buy powerful and highly addictive narcotics in the online classifieds.

    "Although Richard Beasley is a murderer and liar, he was brutally honest with one person. One person knew everything that he was doing. Just one. And that was Brogan Rafferty," assistant Summit County prosecutor John Baumoel told jurors. "Brogan Rafferty knew each and every one of his dark secrets."

    Baumoel told jurors that the two were partners "in executing people out in the woods."

    He pointed jurors to Internet searches Rafferty did after the first slaying for the term "first kill" and "Sopranos' first whack," referring to the TV show about a New Jersey mafia family. And he downplayed arguments the defense had made that Rafferty was the product of a tough childhood, his mother a drug addict on the streets, his father rarely around as he worked long hours to support the family.

    "Having a difficult childhood is neither a legal excuse nor a moral excuse for being involved in deaths and murder of multiple people," Baumoel said.

    Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

    Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen meets with someone who is suggesting he is a hit man.

    Rafferty's attorney said the suspect was a 16-year-old child at the time of the killings who was afraid Beasley would harm his mother and sister and didn't know how to escape.

    "Did we see Brogan Rafferty, psychopath, or a 16-year-old child who found himself in a horrible situation and couldn't find his way out?" attorney John Alexander asked.

    He added, "Does a 16-year-old child have the know-how how to handle these traumatic situations? Does he understand the options ahead of him?"

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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  • Man finds his prized Austin Healey on eBay -- 42 years after it was stolen from his home

    AP

    In this image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. the stolen car sits on small transport trailer as it is delivered to Robert Russell 's home in Texas.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    A man whose prized sports car was stolen 42 years ago recovered the vehicle after spotting it on eBay, authorities said Sunday.

    Robert Russell, 66, a retired sales manager, told the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that he had never given up searching for the 1967 Austin Healey after it was stolen from his Philadelphia home in 1970.

    Russell recently spotted what he thought was his car listed on eBay by the Beverly Hills Car Club. He checked the vehicle identification number on the website with the one on the car's title certificate and found they were a match, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

    Russell, who now lives near Dallas, Texas, contacted the department in May, and Detective Carlos Ortega tracked down the car in East Los Angeles.

    "Detective Ortega located the stolen Austin Healey at the dealership listed in the eBay ad and confirmed that the car was the same vehicle reported stolen by Mr. Russell," the department said.

    After working with Philadelphia police to resolve vehicle identification issues, the department told Russell he could pick up his car.

    AP

    Robert Russell and his wife with the car back in their Texas garage.

    He has since brought it back to Texas.

    Russell told deputies that he bought the vehicle for $3,000. It's now valued at $23,000.

    He said "he continued his search for the vehicle, not for its monetary value, but because it had sentimental value to him and his wife," the department said.

    Russdell said he didn't hold out much hope of ever finding the vehicle he paid a friend $3,000 for back in 1968, only to find it stolen the morning after taking his future wife out on their second date.

    "The fact that the car still exists is improbable," he told NBCPhiladelphia.com. "It could have been junked or wrecked."

    See original story on NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Russell and his wife, Cynthia, drove to Los Angeles on June 16 and took possession of the car two days later after paying roughly $600 in impoundment fees.

    They also paid about $800 to have the Austin Healey shipped to their Southlake, Texas, home, where it arrived June 23.

    "We were probably out $1,500 plus six days of travel and hotel costs," Russell said, NBCPhiladelphia.com reported. "I'm not complaining about any of that. I couldn't get the credit card out of my pocket fast enough."

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    The Beverly Hills Car Club said it had no idea the car may have been stolen.

    "Beverly Hills Car Club found the Austin Healey on Craigslist and purchased the car from a seller in New Jersey who claimed to have owned the car for 42 years. The VIN matched the registration and paperwork, had no liens and was clear and unencumbered from the State of New York, when it was issued to the seller in 1970," Versa Manos from the Beverly Hills Car Club said in a press release. "In good faith, we purchased the car and paid to have it shipped cross-country, where it was detailed, photographed and displayed for sale on our eBay page."

    The Beverly Hills Car Club said it immediately took down the listing after getting a call from Russell  saying that the car was stolen in 1970. The matter was handed over to the dealership's attorney for investigation into Russell's claims.

    "To our knowledge, the car had a valid title and there was no report on it being a stolen vehicle, which was apparently due to an error by the Philadelphia Police Department," Manos said. "This could have happened to anyone buying a car on the Internet."

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    The car club said it cooperated with local authorities to return the car to its rightful owner.

    "We are all very happy that Mr. Russell has gotten his car back," says Manos. "However, we are victims in this situation. We have lost $27,000, which is what we paid for the car plus the cost to ship it to California.”

    The car club said  the previous “owner” had the car in his possession for the past 42 years and had been driving the car on a regular basis.

    The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this report.

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  • Craigslist ad victim? Police identify another body

    By msnbc.com news services

    CLEVELAND -- Authorities identified the body of an Ohio man Saturday who could be the third victim of a bogus Craigslist website ad that lured two jobseekers to their deaths.

    The body of Ralph H. Geiger, 56, was found in a shallow grave Nov. 25 in the same area another body was found earlier in the month in the heavily wooded area in southeastern Ohio, Noble County Sheriff Steve Hannum said.

    Hannum, under a gag order from a judge, did not say whether Geiger answered the same ad promising farmhand work that authorities say led to the deaths of two other men.

    "Recent events of an ongoing investigation led authorities to Mr. Geiger's gravesite," Hannum said in a statement.

    The body of Geiger, whose last known address was Akron, Ohio, was the third found in Ohio that might be linked to the Craigslist ad. 

    A South Carolina man, Scott Davis, survived a shooting attack in rural Noble County, Ohio, on Nov. 6 when he answered an ad looking for a ranch hand. Davis was shot while running away from two men he met when he responded to the ad.

    One of the three bodies was found in a shallow grave on Nov. 15 near where Davis was shot; it was identified as David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia. A second body was found in a shallow grave on Nov. 25 behind a semi-deserted mall in Akron, Ohio.

    The third body, Geiger's, was also discovered Nov. 25. A coroner's report released on Saturday said Geiger died of a gunshot to the head. No date of death was given but the report said the body was moderately decomposed. Geiger's family was notified.

    After Davis survived the attack, 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty was arrested and charged with attempted murder and murder in juvenile court. His next hearing is Dec. 15.

    Another man named by the FBI as a suspect in the shooting, Richard J. Beasley, 52, is in prison in Summit County, Ohio, on unrelated drug and prostitution charges.

    The phony ad was posted on Craigslist Oct. 7 and offered $300 a week to "simply watch over a 688 acre patch of hilly farmland."

    The case is under a gag order issued from a judge in Noble County, Ohio but the sheriff's office said they found Geiger's grave site through the ongoing investigation.

    There have been several instances in recent years of attackers allegedly finding victims through postings on the classified ad website Craigslist.

    In 2009, a former medical student was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist, and police have been hunting for at least one serial killer in the New York area thought to prey on prostitutes who advertised on the site.

    This article contains reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters.

  • Men answering rental ad find child, 4, with dad's body

    By King 5 News and msnbc.com staff

    BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Two men who knocked on a Bellevue door answering a Craigslist ad for a room to rent instead found a dead man inside.

    The men had approached the home in a subrub of Seattle on Saturday. A 4-year-old boy answered the door crying, saying he couldn't wake up his dad.

    The men took the boy to a neighbor's house and said they would go check on the boy's father. They went back to the residence and found the man's body and called 911.

    Read the original story on KING 5

    Bellevue police said the man was in his 30s and appeared to have died of natural causes a couple of days ago.

    Police said there were no signs of foul play, but they will investigate because of the unusual circumstances of the dad's death.

    The boy's mother does not live at the home and was out of town Saturday, said police. Officers were able to locate the boy's grandparents and placed the boy in their care Saturday night.