WILDWOOD > Man thrown from truck dies • George M. Janke, 54, of Villa Ridge, died after being thrown from a pickup while salting and plowing roads in a private subdivision about 5 p.m. Monday, police said. Janke and James O. Maxwell were on Bartizan Drive when Janke climbed into the bed of the truck to fix the salt-spreader, said Capt. Kenneth Williams of the St. Louis County police. The pickup slid down a steep incline and crashed into a retaining wall, throwing Janke to the pavement. He was "conscious and alert" and complaining of hip pain when police and paramedics arrived, Williams said, but died at Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur at 7:20 p.m. An autopsy was pending.

PIKE COUNTY > Pickup crash kills driver • John D. Stuertz, 48, of St. Louis, was killed here when his pickup crashed on Highway 61, south of East Outer Road 61. about 6:30 p.m. Monday. Stuertz was driving north when his 2000 Ford F150 ran off the left side and struck a sign and an embankment, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol. It then crossed over East Outer Road 61, struck a bed of rocks in the median and overturned several times. Stuertz, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown out, troopers said. It was unclear whether snowy weather played a role.

ST. LOUIS > Charge filed in teen sex case • Jack E. Gravenmier, 78, appeared in federal court here Monday charges that say he traveled from home in Charleston, W.Va., to Troy, Mo., to have sex with a teenage boy. Gravenmier was arrested Saturday morning by the FBI. Court documents say Gravenmier met the boy last year and they had a sexual encounter. After the boy's mother alerted police last month, investigators posed as the boy to correspond with Gravenmier, according to an affidavit by James A. Stewart, a Troy police officer on the case. Gravenmier sent Stewart what appeared to be child pornography, including images that he claimed to have taken, and reserved a room at a Troy motel for Saturday and Sunday, Stewart wrote. Gravenmier is charged with attempting to persuade a minor to engage in sexual activity; additional charges may follow.

ST. LOUIS > Father charged with endangerment • Dana Jones, 53, was charged in court here Tuesday with first-degree child endangerment for allegedly removing his 14-year-old daughter, Brittany Jones, from Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center about 2 p.m. Sunday. The incident triggered a public alert until the two turned up about 11 p.m. Sunday at a hospital in Milwaukee. The girl was in Illinois state custody when she was taken, officials said. A Cardinal Glennon doctor told police she was in "grave danger" if she did not receive medication for a kidney transplant last year. Dana Jones, of Ingleside, Ill., an unincorporated community at the northeastern corner of the state, also was charged with interfering with state custody. The girl is now in protective custody.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY > Laser aimed at plane • Authorities were trying to determine who aimed a green laser light at a Southwest Airlines plane as it approached Lambert-St. Louis International Airport about 6:20 p.m. Sunday. Elizabeth Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said the Boeing 737 was about 2,000 feet in the air, about five miles from the airport, when it happened. Nobody was hurt. Lasers can dazzle or blind pilots, so aiming one at aircraft is a federal crime with a possible 20-year prison term. The FAA receives hundreds of reports from across the country each year because of growing availability of high-powered laser pointers. Last week, a man from St. Peters was charged with aiming a laser at a plane. Brian David Monday, 30, was indicted on a federal charge of interfering with an aircraft for allegedly pointing a laser at a plane in flight Nov. 4.

ST. CHARLES > Man accused of robbing officer • Terrance T. Norman, 19, has been charged with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action in connection with the robbery of an undercover police officer Jan. 25, St. Charles police said. Norman, of 1600 block of Eagle Valley Drive in St. Louis County, also was charged with tampering with a witness for allegedly threatening to kill the witness and his family. Norman turned himself in and was booked in the St. Charles County Jail last week.

ST. LOUIS > Charge filed in mugging of priest • A man who in the past accepted assistance from St. Mary of Victories Chapel is accused of driving the getaway car after a retired chaplain there was mugged. Danielle Johnson, 40, of the 5500 block of Riverview Boulevard, was charged Tuesday in St. Louis Circuit Court with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. According to charges, the priest was unloading groceries at 10:13 a.m. Monday outside the church, at 744 South Third Street, when a man robbed him at gunpoint of his wallet, about $200, personal papers, four Schnucks gift cards and four MetroLink passes. A witness ran after the mugger and saw him speed away in a car that police said was driven by Johnson. Officers found him a short time later and said he admitted driving the getaway car. Court documents say he had been a recipient of help from the church. The gunman was sought.

GRANITE CITY > Two charged in home invasion, beating • Two men have been charged with home invasion and attempted murder in an altercation in Granite City on Friday morning. The suspects are Ricky Allen Andrews, 32, of the 400 block of Floyd Trail in Pocahontas, and Robert Curtis Kelly, 47, of the 1600 block of Fifth Street in Madison. Kelly was in custody on Tuesday, but Andrews had not been arrested. The men are accused of severely beating a man in his apartment in the 1600 block of Delmar Avenue in Granite City.

ALTON > Man accused of sexual assault of child • Madison County prosecutors have charged Tommy Williams, 31, of the 800 block of Hampton Avenue in Alton, with sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl. Williams allegedly assaulted the girl on Saturday. Stephanee Smith, spokeswoman for the Madison County state's attorney's office, said Williams was a friend of the victim's family. He was charged Tuesday with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Editor's note:  a previous version of the item on Terrance Norman listed an incorrect location for his residence.