LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - This year has been marred by violence - here in Arkansas and across the nation.

The murders here didn't come all at once like the horrific shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 people dead, including 20 children.

Instead, the tragic slayings of children and parents devastated a number of Arkansas communities one at a time in 2012.

Someone in Bentonville killed a 6-year-old girl in November a year after her father was convicted of chaining her to a dresser elsewhere in northwest Arkansas. Somebody else murdered two children and their stepfather in December in an Arkadelphia home decorated with inflatable penguins ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Authorities were quick to arrest suspects in those killings, but questions still remain unanswered in those and other slayings across the state.

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