Thanks to the person who tipped me off to these news stories from southern Florida.

2008 may go down as a record year for child-on-child murders in Broward County, Florida, according to CBS 4. The most recent case had to do with a 15-year-old lesbian murdering a friend who rebuffed her sexual advances, according to the Southern Voice, a gay publication in Atlanta.

But as the Miami Herald pointed out, Teah Wimberly appears to have had many more personal issues than rejection over her sexual orientation.

The 15-year-old played four instruments and joined the Dillard High School marching band in hopes of one day playing in front of her father, Jevon Wimberly, an aspiring comedian and the girl's primary caregiver.

But Wimberly's goal was dashed after her father was jailed in 2006 for attempted murder. His sudden absence -- worsened by his refusal to let her visit -- sent Wimberly into a depression and triggered a troubling change in her behavior, court documents revealed.

Letters from family and friends hint that Wimberly's life went into a gradual tailspin that ended Wednesday, when she was arrested and charged with fatally shooting her longtime friend, 15-year-old Amanda Collette, in a school hallway.

''I wanted her to feel pain like me,'' Wimberly told Fort Lauderdale police after her arrest. Broward County prosecutors said Thursday they will charge her -- as an adult -- with first-degree murder.

According to friends, the girls had exchanged a series of emotional text messages Tuesday. Among them: messages from Wimberly professing her love for Collette and her rejection of her advances.

Wimberly had faced rejection before.

Her mother, Char Merritt Aukland, entered the U.S. Army after the girl was born and left Wimberly in the care of her paternal grandparents. Aukland, who now lives in Virginia, signed over temporary guardianship of her daughter to the grandmother in 1998 and reappeared in the child's life in 2001.

A psychologist quoted in the CBS story said abandonment, isolation and depression are triggers for children who commit violent crimes. How sad. And how bizarre, especially since these cases appear to be concentrated in one area.