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Murder charge filed in abandoned child case

By wire services
Published October 2, 2005

NEW YORK - A Queens man was arrested on a murder charge Saturday in the death of his live-in girlfriend, a week after the woman's 4-year-old daughter was found walking down a city street alone at night, police said.

Cesar Ascarrunz, 32, was arrested on murder charges two days after he was picked up by investigators. Authorities were searching Saturday for 26-year-old Monica Lozada's remains.

More than a dozen tips came in to police after child welfare officials took the unusual step of putting the child, Valery Lozada, on television Thursday.

Lozada was last seen at the apartment she shared with Ascarrunz on Sept. 24, at 11:45 p.m. A little more than an hour later, Valerie was found on a Queens street, shivering and barefoot. She remained in foster care Saturday.

CHICAGO - A man being questioned in the deaths of four family members whose bodies were found in an upscale suburban Chicago home is the son of two of the victims and the sibling of another, Wisconsin authorities said.

Eric C. Hanson, 28, was arrested on an Illinois warrant for intimidation and was being held in a Wisconsin jail, officials said.

He has not been charged in the deaths or named as a suspect.

Police found the bodies Thursday in a two-story brick home in Aurora, 30 miles west of Chicago.

Police checked on Jimmy Chio Tsao, 34, and Katherine Anne Hanson-Tsao, 31, after they did not show up for work. Katherine Anne Hanson-Tsao's parents, Michael Hanson, 57, and Mary Lynn Hanson, 55, of Naperville were also found in the house. Authorities said the four suffered severe blunt-force trauma.

[Last modified October 2, 2005, 01:59:10]