In brief: Children, 5 and 11, found living in bus

Splendora, Texas – The abandoned school bus had no engine and no front wheels. But there were crude curtains in the windows, an air conditioner and even bunk beds inside.

So when a postal worker repeatedly ran across two unkempt children at the scene, she grew concerned and this week contacted authorities to report that the pair had apparently been living there for months.

Now child welfare agents are trying to unravel the story of the siblings, a 5-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, whose parents are in prison and whose home was a dilapidated vehicle at the end of a muddy, one-lane road.

The postal carrier discovered the kids Wednesday near Houston, and the two were swiftly placed in foster care while authorities investigate.

The father of the pair said he never intended for the bus to be a permanent home. He said the family had originally planned to build a house at the site.

The parents – Mike and Sherrie Shorten – were convicted on charges of embezzling money from victims of Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008. The mother was arrested in December 2010, the father in March 2011. Sherrie Shorten’s attorney said an aunt had been caring for the children.

Gunman killed after clinic shooting

Pittsburgh – A man armed with two semiautomatic handguns entered the lobby of a psychiatric clinic at the University of Pittsburgh on Thursday and opened fire, killing one person and wounding several others before he was shot dead, apparently by campus police, the mayor said.

Six people were wounded by the man’s gunfire, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said. One of the injured was a police officer, who was grazed by a bullet.

Officials didn’t say if that officer shot the gunman, whose identity and relationship to the clinic, if any, weren’t disclosed.

Former detective convicted of murder

Los Angeles – A former Los Angeles police detective was found guilty Thursday of the 26-year-old murder of the wife of her former lover in a case that hinged on a single piece of evidence – DNA from a bite mark on the victim’s arm.

The first-degree murder conviction came after a three-week trial that included testimony from a forensic expert who said the DNA was a match to defendant Stephanie Lazarus. Lazarus could face 27 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole when she is sentenced for the murder and a gun enhancement imposed by the jury.

Victim Sherri Rasmussen was bludgeoned and shot to death in 1986 in the condo she shared with her husband of three months.

Detectives initially believed two robbers who had attacked another woman in the area were to blame. But two decades later, a cold case team using DNA analysis concluded the killer was a woman and authorities began looking at Lazarus as a suspect.