What Made Missing Pregnant Mom Murder So Compelling?

A pregnant woman disappears. Police suspect foul play. Soon, the national media spotlight focuses on the small city of Canton, Ohio, as reporters, lights and camera crews descend on the town.

Some deaths, like the recent murder of 26-year-old Jessie Davis in Canton, seem to hold the nation transfixed.

Police now say Davis, who was nine months pregnant, was murdered June 14. Like that of Laci Peterson, Davis' case has become the stuff of talk show fodder and 24-hour-cable news alerts. About 750 people attended her funeral this weekend.

It's not always like that. Last year, there were more than 16,000 homicides in the United States. That's an average of about 45 people killed every day, nearly one every half hour.

Most of their deaths -- and lives -- go little noticed beyond a small group of bereaved friends and family, or perhaps a brief mention in the local paper.

June 14, 2007, was no different.

On that day, at least 19 people were murdered across the country, from Florida to Washington State. They ranged in age, profession, and location -- from nine-month-old infants to 60-year-old grandmothers, in small towns and big cities. They were newspaper carriers, a dance student who dreamed of making it big, devoted mothers and husbands. Four parents killed their children that day.

Here are some of their stories.