Mount Pleasant, Michigan Carnell Chamberlain 4

[meme]

Police, Volunteers Search For Missing 4-Year-Old Boy

MOUNT PLEASANT (WWJ/AP) - Police and volunteers are searching for a 4-year-old from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe who was reported missing by his family in mid-Michigan.

Tribal Public Relations Director Frank Cloutier said the search was ongoing Friday in the Mount Pleasant area after Carnell Chamberlain was reported missing Thursday night.

Chamberlain was last seen around 9:30 p.m. in a pool area on Tomah Road, south of the Soaring Eagle Casino, wearing a dark shirt with “Angry Birds” on the front with dark blue or green shorts with green trim. The boy is described as three feet tall with short dark hair and green eyes.

More than a dozen agencies were involved in the search, which was led by tribal police. A least 100 volunteers gathered Friday morning to help, WSGW-AM reported.

Cloutier said the circumstances surrounding his disappearance were under investigation.

Tribal members and others participated in the search, which included Saginaw Chippewa tribe land about 120 miles northwest of Detroit.

Police say an Amber Alert has not yet been issued.

If you have any information on Chamberlain’s whereabouts, contact Tribal Police at 989-775-4700.

detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/06/22/police-volunteers-search-for-missing-4-year-old-boy/

[meme]

Mich. police, volunteers search for missing boy, 4

June 22, 2012, 5:43 p.m. EDT AP

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — Police, firefighters and volunteers are searching for a 4-year-old from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe who was reported missing by his family in mid-Michigan.

Tribal spokesman Frank Cloutier said in a statement late Friday afternoon that the search was ongoing in the Mount Pleasant area after Carnell Chamberlain was reported missing around 10 p.m. on Thursday. More than a dozen agencies were involved in the search.

Cloutier says the circumstances surrounding Carnell's disappearance were under investigation.

Seventy-eight firefighters and more than 150 volunteers searched a 1-mile radius of where the boy last was seen, about 120 miles northwest of Detroit.

Midland search and rescue, tribal police and the firefighters planned to continue the search until dark, and if the boy isn't found, they will restart it Saturday morning.

www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf/story/mich-police-volunteers-search-for-missing-boy-4/fa4cdff15e4e4d36b13eb40a15d891d1

[meme]

Search continues for missing Mount Pleasant boy

Posted: Friday, June 22, 2012 4:08 pm

In the photo with this story, Amanda Oster, right, of Midland County Search and Rescue, goes over a map of the area where she and a group of volunteers will be searching for Carnell Chamberlain, a missing 4-year-old boy.

More than 150 volunteers from Isabella County and surrounding communities are performing a grid search to try and locate Chamberlain, but so far have not been successful.

Carnel Chamberlain was last seen at a house around 9:30 p.m. Thursday on Tomah Road.

His family reported him missing around 10:10 p.m. and a search began. Chamberlain is described as an American Indian boy about 3 feet tall with short dark hair and green eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark shirt with “Angry Birds” written on it, along with dark blue or green shorts with green trim, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police reported.

m.ourmidland.com/mobile/news/article_e13ce656-bca5-11e1-9729-001a4bcf887a.html

[meme]

Mom holds out hope for missing 4-year-old Mt. Pleasant boy

1:05 PM, June 25, 2012

Michigan Indian reservation said Monday she is holding out hope that he'll be found safe as additional searches were planned.

Jaimee Chamberlain, 21, told the Associated Press on Monday that her son, Carnel Chamberlain, was being cared for by her boyfriend at her home near Mount Pleasant when the child disappeared Thursday.

She said when she got home from work that night, her boyfriend —who regularly spent time with her and the child —told her Carnel wasn't there.

"I ran inside and looked around. I didn't know what to do," said Chamberlain, who went to a neighbor's home to see if she could find Carnel and then called police.

After staying home during the early portion of the search at the request of police, Chamberlain said she has been joining those looking for her son.

"I just want my son home and I don't want people to stop looking," she said.

Authorities planned to regroup Monday after search teams, the FBI, police dogs and more than 100 volunteers scoured the area Sunday, said Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe spokesman Frank Cloutier. Crews on Sunday also searched ponds at a wastewater treatment plant near the child's home, but nothing significant was found, he said.

The tribe has said the boy's disappearance was "suspicious." The tribe also has said the mother's boyfriend initially had not been cooperating with authorities, but was described as "minimally cooperative" Sunday.

In earlier reports about the search, the missing boy's first name was spelled Carnell or Carnal, based on information released by the tribe.

The FBI is assisting tribal police on this case, and directed requests for information about the search to tribal police, the FBI in Detroit said Monday. The Isabella County sheriff's department also is assisting in the search, but said it couldn't release information.

www.freep.com/article/20120625/NEWS06/120625015/missing-boy-Carnell-Chamberlain-Mt-Pleasant-Saginaw-Chippewa-Tribe

[meme]

Search for missing boy becomes criminal probe

June 26, 2012

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. Authorities say the search for a 4-year-old boy reported missing from a mid-Michigan Indian reservation is now a criminal investigation.

Carnel Chamberlain disappeared last Thursday while in the care of his mother's boyfriend.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe spokesman Frank Cloutier says a search warrant to collect physical evidence was executed Monday. He says the warrant was related to the mother's boyfriend, but did not offer further details.

Carnel's mother says her boyfriend was caring for the boy at her home near Mount Pleasant while she was at work. The tribe said the boyfriend initially wasn't cooperative.

Cloutier says tribal police also have secured Carnel's home to preserve any possible evidence.

The tribe says Tuesday's search for Carnel is focused on a wooded area near a wastewater treatment plant.

m.cbsnews.com/fullstory.rbml?catid=57461111&feed_id=999&videofeed=999

[meme]

UPDATE: Search for missing Mount Pleasant boy now a criminal investigation

06/26/2012 3:40 PM

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe said Tuesday that the search for Carnel Chamberlain, who has been missing since Thursday, is now a criminal investigation.

Authorities have been searching the Isabella Federal Reservation for 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain for five days.

On Tuesday, police began searching a wooded area near a wastewater treatment plant.

They said the search is now being conducted as a criminal investigation into the boy's disappearance.

Thy boy's mother, Jaimee Chamberlain, left her son with her boyfriend on Thursday while she was at work.

When she returned home from work at 9:30 p.m., her son was gone.

Chamberlain's boyfriend, Anthony Bennett, 20, is considered a person of interest in the investigation.

On Monday, police executed a search warrant on Bennett.

Police said on Saturday that Bennett was not cooperating in the investigation. They said he has since calmed down and is being "minimally cooperative."

Tribal spokesman Frank Cloutier told The Morning Sun that Bennett was playing a "cat-and-mouse" game with authorities.

Carnel Chamberlain was born in January 2008 to Jaimee Chamberlain, 21, who had substance abuse problems, according to The Morning Sun reports.

Carnel Chamberlain was placed in foster care and Michigan officials attempted to remove parental custody.

Bennett was released unsatisfactorily from probation one year ago after charges of fleeing a traffic stop while drinking and driving, according to reports.

Jaimee Chamberlain told a probation official in 2008 to take her son out of her custody because she did not want him, according to an abuse-neglect petition filed in Isabella County Trial Court.

The woman was able to regain custody through the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Court system.

More than 15 law enforcement agencies, Michigan State Police cadaver dogs, helicopters with infrared cameras, and more than 175 volunteers have searched a 10-mile radius around the home where the boy was last seen.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting the tribal police with the investigation.

Carnel Chamberlain stands three foot tall and weighs 37 pounds. He has short dark hair and green eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark colored Angry Birds T-shirt and dark blue or green pants with a green trim.

Anyone who has seen the boy is asked to call the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police at 989-775-4700.

mobile.mlive.com/advannarbor/pm_103352/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=zSiD4hr1

[meme]

Report:Body of missing 4-year-old boy found under porch of home

By Staff Reports on June 28, 2012 5:52 pm

The body of Carnel Chamberlain, the 4-year-old boy missing since June 21, has been found underneath the porch of the home shared by his mother and her boyfriend, the Morning Sun reports.

The FBI and technicians from the Michigan State Police crime lab are on the scene of the Tomah Road home east of Mount Pleasant, according to The Sun.

Jamiee Chamberlain, 21, reported her son missing at approximately 10:15 p.m. Monday after coming home from her job at Isabella’s restaurant at Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort. Carnel was being watched by Chamberlain’s boyfriend, Anthony Bennett, 20. Bennett reportedly has not been cooperative with police and hired an attorney.

A search has been ongoing for the last week throughout the Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribal reservation.

Jamiee Chamberlain was scheduled to appear on CNN Headline News’ Nancy Grace program Thursday night to discuss the search for her son.

www.cm-life.com/2012/06/28/report-body-of-missing-4-year-old-boy-found-under-porch-of-home/

[meme]

Body of missing 4-year-old discovered under porch

MOUNT PLEASANT, MI (WNEM) -BREAKING UPDATE: TV5 can confirm that the body of missing 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain was found on Thursday afternoon underneath a patio at the boy's home.

Police in Mount Pleasant were seen putting up crime scene tape around Carnel's mother's house. A crime lab vehicle and two Michigan State Police cars pulled up to the house and brought in a cadaver dog late Thursday afternoon. The animal was seen moving around the home's front and back porches.

Once authorities set up a perimeter, they pushed TV5 off the property. A neighbor told TV5 that earlier today they could smell a "barbeque-like" smell coming the area the night Carnel was reported missing.

The Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant also reported that the boy's body was found underneath one of those porches.

WNEM.com will be updating this story with any new information as we learn it throughout the evening. Tune in tonight on TV5 News at 11 p.m. for a live report from the vigil for Carnel and more details into the investigation.

Search teams have stopped looking for missing 4-year-old Carnel Chamberlain because of heat advisories issued on Thursday.

The boy has been missing for seven days since first disappearing last Thursday night while in the care of his mother's boyfriend. Authorities said they're still questioning the boyfriend, who they've labeled "a person of interest" in the case. TV5 spoke at length with Carnel's mom about the boy's disappearance.

According to TV5 reporter Andrew Keller, Carnel's mother, 21-year-old Jaimee Chamberlain, had allowed her boyfriend, Anthony Bennett, to move into her home about seven months ago. A week ago, Jaimee said she saw bruises on Carnel's buttocks. She asked Anthony about it and she said he admitted to doing it because the boy didn't clean his room. Jaimee then said Carnel complained about Anthony "being mean."

Later, when Jaimee came home last Thursday night from her job around 10 p.m., she asked Anthony where Carnel was and she said he replied, "he came up missing." Jaimee said she told Anthony to put Carnel to bet at 9 p.m. Anthony told her he's last seen the boy playing in the pool in the back yard at 9:30 p.m.

Jaimee said she went next door to the neighbors to see if they had seen Carnel. When they said no, she called police. Police told her to stay in her house. Jaime said she went into the bathroom and saw that the carpet was wet. She said Anthony claimed he was setting up a bath for her and it overflowed. Jaimee told TV5 she also found two brown spots on the carpet in the bathroom where it was wet and said it smelled like cleaning solution.

Jaimee also said she was looking through the laundry and found wet shorts that Carnel had been wearing that day.

Meanwhile, the family has set up a Facebook page titled "Carnel's Hope For Tomorrow." You can click to see that page here.

On Wednesday, Carnel's mother admitted to taking two polygraph tests in connection to her son's disappearance.

That information came on the heels of Tribal police announcing two days ago that the boyfriend, Anthony Bennett, is a "person of interest." Police said they asked Bennett to take a polygraph test and he turned the request down.

m.wnem.com/w/main/story/65752479/

[meme]

Authorities name person of interest in missing child search

Posted: 06.27.2012 at 2:28 PM

ISABELLA COUNTY -- The search is still on for Carnell Chamberlain, the young Isabella County boy who has been missing since last Thursday night.

Carnell was supposed to be in the care of Anthony Bennett, the boy's mother's now ex-boyfriend, when he went missing on Thursday. The mother then called police to start the search.

Both Carnell's mother and Bennett were brought in for questioning on Friday. The mother took a polygraph test and everything looked normal. Bennett refused to take the test. According to a spokesperson from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, "he was playing games with authorities."

Monday morning Bennett was brought in to police authorities under a different arrest warrant. There were pictures taken and he reportedly had scratches on his arms.

Bennett is not in police custody, but he is under watch.

Today they are searching three more dense wooded areas on tribal land. Canine units and horseback patrols are searching in other areas as well. Police are also back on Miller's Pond searching.

Police are still treating the investigation as a search and rescue until they know more.

www.upnorthlive.com/m/news/story?list=~\home\lists\search&id=770314#.T-zh2ffCv5Y

[meme]

JUNE 29, 2012 AT 9:37 AM

Body of missing Mount Pleasant boy found buried at home

Mount Pleasant— Family and friends of a 4-year-old boy who was missing for a week awaited word Friday on what led investigators to return to his family's home on a mid-Michigan Indian reservation, where the child's body was found under a porch.

Dennis Kequom, chief of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, said he spoke to hundreds of people gathered Thursday night at a vigil for Carnel Chamberlain at the reservation in Isabella County, 70 miles north of Lansing. Family spokesman Kevin Chamberlain said the child's body was found earlier in the day under a wood porch or deck at the home where he lived with his mother and her boyfriend.

Carnel "didn't have time to grow up and enjoy life," the chief said, adding: "He'll always be with us in our hearts."

Federal authorities were silent on the case early Friday, and the tribe was expected to hold a news conference in the afternoon at the Isabella Indian Reservation.

On Friday morning, a tribal police car sat outside the family's one-story home, less than a mile from tribal police headquarters and the offices of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe. Just beyond the offices is the tribe's gleaming Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, which attracts gamblers from around the state.

Kevin Chamberlain, the tribe's former chief who is a cousin of Carnel's mother, Jaimee Chamberlain, said he had no details about what led investigators back to the house after many days of searching woods, ponds and the tribe's wastewater treatment areas.

The body "had to be in a grave. We had looked underneath before and didn't see anything," he said.

Carnel disappeared June 21 while in the care of his mother's boyfriend. Police have said the boyfriend wasn't very cooperative during the search and has consulted a lawyer.

Tribal police had been leading the investigation. On Thursday, they referred calls to the FBI, which declined to comment. Any charges in the case would be handled by federal authorities, who have jurisdiction over major crimes on Indian reservations.

Messages seeking information on the case were sent early Friday to an FBI spokesman and a U.S. attorney's office in Michigan.

The vigil was attended by Jaimee Chamberlain, relatives and others. People sang, played drums and spoke urging love and healing in the face of tragedy.

www.detroitnews.com/article/20120629/METRO/206290384#ixzz1zBUoNp4z

[meme]

Boy, 4, found dead under home on Mich. reservation

Associated Press Updated 08:27 a.m., Friday, June 29, 2012

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) —Family and friends of a 4-year-old boy who was missing for a week awaited word Friday on what led investigators to return to his home on a mid-Michigan Indian reservation,where his family said the child's body was found under a porch.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday night at a vigil for Carnel Chamberlain at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe's reservation in Isabella County where he had lived with his mother and her boyfriend.

"Nothing this monumentally horrific has ever happened in our community," said family spokesman Kevin Chamberlain, who grew up on the reservation and served as tribal chief from 1997 to 1999.

"Right now, it's a very somber place with a lot of broken hearts," Chamberlain told The Associated Press on Friday.

Carnel was reported missing June 21 while in the care of his mother's boyfriend. For days, investigators searched woods, ponds and the tribe's wastewater treatment areas to no avail. Police said the boyfriend was not very cooperative and has consulted a lawyer.

Carnel's body was discovered on Thursday under a wood porch or deck at his single-story home, said Chamberlain, who is a cousin of Carnel's mother Jaimee Chamberlain.

The body "had to be in a grave. We had looked underneath before and didn't see anything," he said.

He said he didn't know why investigators went back to the house, which had been sealed off by tribal police days earlier. Authorities have announced no arrests.

Federal authorities —who have jurisdiction over major crimes on Indian reservations —were silent on the case Friday morning. A tribal spokesman said a news conference planned for Friday afternoon at the Isabella Indian Reservation was canceled. A spokeswoman for a U.S. attorney's office in Detroit, which oversees federal cases in the area, said she had no information.

A tribal police car sat outside the family's house, less than a mile from tribal police headquarters and the offices of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe. Just beyond the offices is the gleaming Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, which attracts gamblers from around the state and is the tribe's financial lifeblood.

Judy Klein,68, of Mount Pleasant, drove to the boy's home about 70 miles north of Lansing on Friday morning to leave some flowers.

She said she was "sick about it" when she learned of the child's death.

"I'm a mother. I lost a child," she said, trying to hold back tears. "She was 26 and died in her sleep. I know the grief."

Klein left hydrangeas she had grown in her garden.

"This little boy is going back to the earth," she said.

At the vigil Thursday night attended by Jamie Chamberlain and other relatives, participants sang, played drums and spoke urging love and healing in the face of tragedy.

Carnel "didn't have time to grow up and enjoy life," tribal chief Dennis Kequom told the gathering. "He'll always be with us in our hearts."

www.sfgate.com/news/article/Boy-4-found-dead-under-home-on-Mich-reservation-3672879.php

[meme]

Arrest in 4-year-old boy's death

Family: Body of missing 4-year-old boy is found buried at his house in central Michigan

Published On: Jun 28 2012 07:37:15 PM EDT Updated On: Jun 29 2012 06:17:54 AM EDT

There's been an arrest in the case of a 4-year-old boy found dead at this home in Mt. Pleasant, said WNEM TV in Saginaw.

Carnel Chamberlain's body was found on Thursday under a wood porch or deck at his home on the reservation of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, 70 miles north of Lansing, Kevin Chamberlain said.

Reports say the mother's boyfriend, Anthony Bennett, is in custody.

Chamberlain, the tribe's former chief, said he had no details about what led investigators back to the house after many days of searching woods, ponds and the tribe's wastewater treatment areas.

Carnel disappeared on June 21 while in the care of his mother's boyfriend.

"There's a lot of anger, just utter despair and disbelief. I don't know how else to define it," said Chamberlain, who is a cousin of Carnel's mother, Jaimee Chamberlain. "After a long week of searching and hoping, we're at a horrific, bitter end."

Tribal police referred calls to the FBI, which declined to comment on the investigation. Any charges in the case would be handled by federal authorities.

Police have said Jaimee Chamberlain's boyfriend was not very cooperative during the weeklong search.

www.clickondetroit.com/news/Arrest-in-4-year-old-boy-s-death/-/1719418/15341370/-/rer7ow/-/index.html

[meme]

Person Of Interest Arrested In Case of Dead ..

A 20-year-old man has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend's 4-year-old son whose family says was found dead under a porch at the mid-Michigan Indian reservation where they live.

Anthony Bennett is charged in a federal criminal complaint Friday in Bay City.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday night at a vigil for Carnel Chamberlain near Mt. Pleasant at the Saginaw-Chippewa Indian Tribe's reservation, where he had lived with his mother and Bennett. He was reported missing June 21 while in the care of Bennett, while his mother was at work.

For days, investigators searched woods, ponds and the tribe's wastewater treatment areas to no avail. Family spokesman Kevin Chamberlain said Carnel's body was discovered on Thursday.

Reports show that Bennett had a history of abusing Carnell. Jamie Chamberlain, Carnell's mother, reported that she found the boy with several cuts and bruises in the weeks leading up to his disappearance.

Bennett is not charged in Carnel's death.

m.wlns.com/default.aspx?pid=2705&wnfeedurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wlns.com%2fstory%2f18908831%2fmissing-4-year-old-boy-found-dead%3fclienttype%3drssstory

[meme]

Person Of Interest Arrested In Case of Dead ..

A 20-year-old man has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend's 4-year-old son whose family says was found dead under a porch at the mid-Michigan Indian reservation where they live.

Anthony Bennett is charged in a federal criminal complaint Friday in Bay City.

Hundreds of people gathered Thursday night at a vigil for Carnel Chamberlain near Mt. Pleasant at the Saginaw-Chippewa Indian Tribe's reservation, where he had lived with his mother and Bennett. He was reported missing June 21 while in the care of Bennett, while his mother was at work.

For days, investigators searched woods, ponds and the tribe's wastewater treatment areas to no avail. Family spokesman Kevin Chamberlain said Carnel's body was discovered on Thursday.

Reports show that Bennett had a history of abusing Carnell. Jamie Chamberlain, Carnell's mother, reported that she found the boy with several cuts and bruises in the weeks leading up to his disappearance.

Bennett is not charged in Carnel's death.

m.wlns.com/default.aspx?pid=2705&wnfeedurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wlns.com%2fstory%2f18908831%2fmissing-4-year-old-boy-found-dead%3fclienttype%3drssstory

[meme]

Man charged with assault of 4-year-old boy who was found dead on mid-Michigan reservation

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — A man accused of beating a 4-year-old Michigan boy before the child disappeared has appeared in court on assault charges.

A federal judge in Bay City explained the charges against Anthony Bennett and sent him back to jail Friday to await a detention hearing next week. Prosecutors don’t want the 20-year-old to be released on bond.

Bennett is not charged in the death of Carnel Chamberlain, whose remains were found this week under a porch at a house on a mid-Michigan Indian reservation. Bennett lived in the house with the boy and the boy’s mother, Jaimee Chamberlain.

An FBI criminal complaint quotes the mother as saying Bennett had assaulted Carnel weeks ago. The boy was last seen June 21.

Bennett appeared in court without a lawyer.

www.washingtonpost.com/national/family-body-of-missing-4-year-old-boy-is-found-buried-at-his-house-in-central-michigan/2012/06/28/gJQA1c959V_story.html

[Pawleys]

The interview with the Mom.
Heartbreaking story.


www.hlntv.com/video/2012/06/28/cops-new-info-emerges-search-carnel

[meme]

Man charged in 'assault' of 4-year-old

Federal government zeroes in on Anthony Bennett

Updated: Saturday, 30 Jun 2012, 7:27 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 29 Jun 2012, 1:09 PM EDT

BAY CITY, Mich. (WOOD) -Anthony Bennett was charged with assaulting Carnel Chamberlain, the 4-year-old boy whose burned body was found under the house he lived in with his mother and Bennett on a mid-Michigan reservation.

Anthony Chambers, the court-appointed attorney for the 20-year-old Bennett, told 24 Hour News 8 Bennett was charged with one count of "Assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to child under 16."

Bennett is in custody of the US Marshal and will have a detention hearing Tuesday afternoon. Both Bennett and his attorney will be present at that hearing. It's expected Bennett will be arraigned after that hearing, Chambers said, followed by a preliminary exam on the evidence. Those court dates have not been set.

Chambers is a Detroit-area attorney who has extensive experience in federal court, including defending the the Detroit underwear bomber Umar Farouk Adbullmutallab.

Carnel Chamberlain went missing last week. His body was found Thursday when a search warrant of the Tomah Road home -- which is on Saginaw Chippewa tribal land -- was executed by Saginaw Chippewa tribal police, Michigan State Police and FBI agents.

The 4-year-old's badly burned body was found under a porch, family members told 24 Hour News 8.

Carnel lived at the home where his body was found with his mother, Jaimee Chamberlain, and her boyfriend, Anthony Bennett.

In the criminal complaint filed in the US District Court in Bay City, the FBI claims Carnel's mother told investigators she "understood Anthony Bennett to have assaulted" the boy more than once.

She also said, the complaint continues, "...that in late May or early June, 2012, Anthony Bennett asked her to sit down after she returned to her home on Tomah Road from work. Bennett asked Jaimee Chamberlain to tell (him) that she loved him. Chamberlain subsequently entered a bedroom where she saw Carnel Chamberlain on a bed with a bruised and swollen face ... a cut on the inside of his lip."

A few days later, she said, she saw "a six-to-eight inch-long bruise along Carnel's ribcage." She told investigators Bennett said he backhanded the child. Later, Carnel told his mother Bennett punched him at the house they lived in.

Then, a few days after that, Jaimee Chamberlain said, she saw "Anthony Bennett pick Carnel up by his neck and drop him. Anthony Bennett then pulled Carnel by his right foot from Jaimee Chamberlain's room to his, Carnel's, room, which was a distance of about 15 feet. Carnel's buttocks was bruised as a result of this assault."

The FBI described Bennett as "a member of the Saginaw Chippewa Native American Tribe and an 'Indian' as that term is used in the Major Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1153.

Violet Green, who used to live with Bennett, told 24 Hour News 8 as soon as she heard about Carnel, she feared the worst.

She's known Bennett for five years. He lived with her while he was dating her granddaughter. She believes he's responsible for Carnel's death.

"We slowly found out he (Bennett) wasn't a good person," she said. "It breaks my heart that somebody could do something to a child like that. Who sets somebody on fire? I want to know, did that boy suffer? Did he set him on fire alive, or did he beat him first and then set him on fire?"

Bennett, she said, was in and out of jail for much of his life. She finally kicked him out of her home when she saw his violent side first-hand.

"When he left, he took (my granddaughter's) dog and that when he kill her dog and set it on fire."

Bennett's criminal history dates back nearly a decade. Among other things, there was a restraining order against him for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend and threatening to kill her father.

Months later, he tried to escape from a police officer who was trying to arrest him for drunk driving. And when Bennett was 15, he told another youth he had stabbed his sister and was going to stab that youth, too.

24 Hour News 8 requested documents from the tribal court about Bennett's criminal past on the reservation, but it was denied "for the protection of the community."

Green said she wishes she could hug Carnel's mother, Jaime. "It takes forever for that pain to go away."

www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/central_mich/anthony-bennett-carnel-chamberlain-fed-complaint-062912

[meme]

Suspect in four-year-old murder seeks bail

7.3.2012

BAY CITY -- The suspect facing assault charges in connection with the death of a four-year-old boy is expected back in federal court on Tuesday.

Carnel Chamberlain disappeared while in the care of his mother's boyfreind, Anthony Bennett.

Authorites say the boy's body was found at his home on the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe's Reservation near Mount Pleasant, buried under a wooden porch.

Meanwhile the family has indicated that it may be more than a month before a funeral can be held.

Bennett has been described as the last person to keep watch over Carnel Chamberlain before the boy disappeared June 21.

No one has been formally charged yet with Carnel's death, but Bennett is charged with assaulting him in late May or early June. He lived with the boy and Carnel's mother, Jaimee Chamberlain.

Defense attorney Anthony Chambers will ask a judge to release Bennett on bond Tuesday during a hearing in federal court in Bay City. Prosecutors want him kept behind bars.

www.minbcnews.com/m/news/story?id=772182#.T_5cJvfCv5Y