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odiChildress Bowmansfirstcaseas an advocatewas for two kids who watched their mother die.

Jennifer Dalythought using meth made her abettermother. Her children were eventuallytak-en away.

Cherlyn Dixon kept half a bagel wrapped in apapertowelforthe next time hersonsgothungry.They didnt have anyfood stampsleft that week.

From the beginning, the Every Child projecthas featured stories that are often hard to read.

A year ago, the News-Leader promised a pro-ject that would, in the words of Executive EditorDavid Stoeffler:

focus public attention on critical challenges facingchildren in our community.

fosterdiscussion amongleadersand the general pub-lic.

build on existing communityinitiatives andlead peo-ple to action.

Although the Every Child project also has celebratedthe stories of success in the community, the brunt of theimpact this past year has been with shocking stories thathave begun a sometimes-painful dialogue.

Abuse, poverty storieshighlight problems

The first 31 days of the year featured quotes from court documentsconcerning crimes against children.

In some, children described the violence perpetrated against them. Inothers, their attackers described the crimes committed against thosehelpless victims.

Those short narratives, often not more than a sentence or twolong and featured on the front page of the newspaper,

were among the most talked-about pieces of the project.

Staff at the Child AdvocacyCenter heard from community

members, asking if those pieceswere real or if theNews-Leader

made them up or simply ex-aggerated the facts.

No, said the staff-ers who see evidence

of crimes against chil-dren every day. Those

are the clean versions of stories heard byCACworkers. In fact, most of thedisclosures

theyhear are too graphic tobe printed ina family newspaper, they said.

As hard as it was to readthose quotes reprinted from lo-

cal child abuse and neglect re-ports, it is nothing compared to the

kids whose lives areforever altered

because of a grownups inexcusable,irresponsible, reprehensible and cow-ardlyactions,said DeniseBredfeldt,

theexecutivedirectorof theMay-ors Commission for Children.

Bredfeldtand others quotedhere are members of theNews-Leaders Every

Child advisory committee.In September, the News-

Leaderunveiled a serieson pov-erty in the Ozarks, digging be-

yond the traditional narrative to of-fer a window into the lives of several

families struggling to get by.

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Authorities say drugs, jealou-syand self defense areamong thereasons15people became victimsof homicide in Springfield thisyear.

A trash can, a campfire and inthe drivers seat of a running carareamongthe places police foundtheremains of victims.

More such slayings wereloggedin 2012 thanat any time inthe last 20 years, some officerssay more than any time in thecityshistory.

Springfields top cops say the

generalpublicisatnogreaterriskof harm.In all but

one, the victimand suspectknew each oth-er before-hand, said Po-lice Chief PaulWilliams, not-ing that thecrimes werenot randomkillings butspurred fromwithin per-sonal relation-

ships.Police believe five homicides

occurred within domestic rela-

tionships.Six are considered to be drug-

related andthree others occurredduring the commission of othercriminal activity, accordingto da-ta provided by the department.

Lt.TadPeters,a commanderinthe Criminal Investigations Sec-tion,noted thatdespitereachinga

Lookingfor waysto curbslayingsYears record homicidecount propels change

By JessRollinsJROLLINS@NEWS-LEADER.COM

COMINGMONDAY

A look back atsome of the yearsbiggest stories.

ONLINE

See an interactivemap ofSpringfield's 15homicides withthis story atNews-Leader.com.

SeeHOMICIDE, Page11A

WASHINGTON Senate lead-ers groped for a last-minutecompromise Saturday to avoidmiddle-class tax increases andpossibly prevent deep spendingcuts atthe dawnof the new yearas President Barack Obamawarned that failure could meana self-inflicted wound to theeconomy.

Obama chastised lawmakersin his weekly radio and Internetaddress forwaiting until thelast

minute to try and avoida fiscalcliff, yet said there was stilltime foran agreement. We can-notlet Washingtonpoliticsget intheway of Americas progress,he said as the hurry-up negotia-tions unfolded.

Forall therecent expressions

Lawmakersscramble on

fiscal cliffByDavid Espo and JimKuhnhennAssociated Press

SeeTALKS, Page 4A

EVERYCHILD SERIES:A LOOK BACK

By KathrynWallKWALL@NEWS-LEADER.COM

J

A focus onhelping our children

SeeCHILDREN,Page 7A

IN OPINION

Issues testcommunitysreputation forcollaboration: SeeExecutive Editor DavidStoefflers column.Page 3B

INSIDE

Catching up with familiesweve profiled. Page 6A

ONLINE: Read stories fromthe Every Child series atNews-Leader.com/EveryChild