Memphis News

According to data provider CoreLogic’s December Home Price Index (HPI), the value of residential real estate in Memphis fell for the seventh consecutive month.

Compared with home prices in December 2010, the company’s HPI indicated home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 5.4 percent. November 2011 was also a tough month for sellers of residential real estate — home prices were down 5.1 percent compared with the same period in 2010.

Damien Echols woke up in a rage for many of the 18 years he spent in prison for a crime that he and many others say he didn’t commit. One of the famed West Memphis Three — friends in eastern Arkansas convicted of the brutal murders of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts in 1993 — Echols spent years of his prison sentence seething in solitary confinement.

“I used to feel that all the time — anger and frustration. I used to wake up in the morning and just be furious for what they’ve done to us,” Echols told The Tennessean.

Police say a man fatally shot his girlfriend and her parents in the family’s home in south Memphis, then turned himself in to authorities with a 4-year-old in tow.

Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph says officers were called to the home at 5:45 a.m. Thursday. They found a 23-year-old woman and a 56-year-old man shot dead. Rudolph said a wounded 46-year-old woman died later at a hospital.

University of Memphis coach Josh Pastner said it more times in the preseason than he probably cared to count.

The Tigers’ offense, with its prolific scorers, is bound to be clicking on most nights. But his early season task — and he let anyone within an earshot know it — was getting his skilled offensive players to play with the same tenacity on defense.

Sears Holding Corporation has released the locations of 79 Sears and Kmart stores which will be closed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It appears the Mid-South has survived this first round, although there will be additional announcements.

On Dec. 27, Sears announced plans to close 100-120 stores. It will be posting these closing at www.searsmedia.com as they become official.

A Memphis couple has been indicted for murdering their one-year-old son last summer, according to Shelby County prosecutors. Gary and Sabrina Hickerson are both charged with first degree murder and aggravated child neglect. Sabrina Hickerson, 22, is also being charged with aggravated child abuse.

The couple’s child, Adrian Hickerson, died of blunt force trauma to the head the day after he was admitted in to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in extremely critical condition.

Justin Fuente filed away his notes from his interview for the Memphis coaching position and, thinking he probably didn’t get the job, wrote thank you notes to the university’s search committee. Then the phone started ringing off the hook. More >

A Memphis mom is charged with child neglect after she left her five-month-old twins in the car while she shopped.

In the hustle and bustle of a busy shopping season, police always warn you to stow it, don’t show it. But they also ask you not leave your kids alone in the car.

There are two labels Harbor Town resident Robert Marcy plans to shed once he leaves for Thailand in January.

Patient and victim.

The slim 48-year-old man with trimmed gray hair and deep blue eyes has now lived longer with HIV/AIDS than without. He calls himself a survivor. And soon, he’ll be one of the first international volunteers with HIV/AIDS to help others affected by the virus.

The new biography of Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, likely will be the best-selling book of 2011. It tells the amazing life story of Jobs – the Thomas Edison of our age – who quietly arrived in Memphis in 2009 to undergo a top-secret liver transplant. More >