ReportWire

Tag: authority

  • 3 ways investigators could solve the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping

    [ad_1]

    The throng of reporters camped out around Tucson is beginning to thin.

    It’s been nearly two weeks since Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos held a news conference updating the case.

    And despite more than 20,000 tips, the investigation appears to be cooling and the paths to solving the Feb. 1 kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie could be narrowing.

    Officials insist the investigation is still in full force and that they have some solid clues: Her blood drops on the doorstep. Her suspected abductor snatched the front door Nest camera, but not before it captured the ski-masked armed man with a backpack lurking on the porch and trying to cover the lens with his gloved hand. More than a dozen gloves have since been recovered in the surrounding community, including one authorities say matched that worn by the person in the video.

    Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Arizona home more than three weeks ago and there is still no person of interest, no suspect or even a description of a kidnapper’s getaway car.

    But so far there have been no DNA matches with known criminals in the federal database.

    Ransom notes came after the Feb. 1 kidnapping, but no proof that the Guthrie was alive followed. Locals were detained and quickly released as investigative leads dried up.

    Still, experts say it’s far too early to call this a “cold case” and noted a break could come at any moment.

    But the paths to finding Guthrie and her abductor are limited:

    1. Forensic evidence

    Investigators could get a scientific breakthrough with DNA evidence.

    Sheriff’s investigators say they are still checking DNA from the gloves recovered in the area and Guthrie’s home, which was searched after the 84-year-old grandmother failed to show up on a Sunday to her church group and a missing person’s case became the nation’s biggest kidnapping drama in decades.

    Nanos and his department have said there are multiple DNA strands mixed from the home — meaning two or more persons — and “there can be challenges separating DNA.”

    A glove was found two miles from the scene that authorities say it appears to match the pair worn by the masked man. But the DNA found on the glove did not match any in the Combined DNA Index System, which has more than 19 million offender samples nationwide.

    Investigators haven’t said how much weight they are giving to specific pieces of evidence. Still, experts say anything with Guthrie’s DNA discovered outside the home may also contain her abductor’s DNA.

    “We believe that we may have some DNA that may be our suspect, but we won’t know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genetic genealogy,” Nanos told NBC News.

    2. Familial DNA

    Genetic genealogy is most famous for apprehending the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., known for serial rapes and murders in the 1970s and 1980s in California. The technique, known as forensic investigative genetic genealogy, incorporates public genealogy websites with DNA analysis. The National District Attorneys Assn. heralded it as a “new era in crime solving.”

    With FIGG, authorities can compare DNA collected from Guthrie’s home with publicly accessible databases containing the genetic profiles of millions of people who have given them over for family history research and other reasons. From there, investigators can sometimes find distant relatives to help piece together a family tree that can point to a suspect, said CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist and co-founder of DNA Justice.

    In the Golden State Killer case, investigators retrieved old DNA processed in the Ventura County crime lab connected to one of his crimes. Instead of processing it on CODIS, they used another part of the DNA to search for potential relatives of the unknown killer in ancestry databases.

    If the person has a long family history in the United States, it’s a bit easier for investigators to use genetic genealogy, Moore added, because there’s more representation in the databases that law enforcement can access.

    However, law enforcement does not have easy access to the roughly 50 million genetic profiles contained in Ancestry.com, 23andMe and MyHeritage databases. Those companies have barred authorities from accessing such information and said they would release it only if compelled by a court order or warrant.

    Databases GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA and DNA Justice are open to law enforcement use but contain fewer than 2 million genetic profiles, Moore said.

    “Cases with Latin American subjects are incredibly difficult,” she said. “Mexico is typically a little bit easier because we have more representation in the database from Mexico than any of the other Latin American countries. But still, because we’re limited to the smallest databases, which are less than 2 million profiles, it’s going to be quite difficult, unless they just get lucky.”

    Investigators can also run familial searches on the CODIS system, where relatives of the suspect may have been placed. Such a search is legal in Arizona.

    3. Evidence breakthrough

    Identifying the suspected kidnapper: FBI agents have already identified the masked man’s backpack as a 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack sold at Walmart, which is now working to assist investigators. The masked assailant’s gun holster, slung between his legs, is what law enforcement terms a universal fit holster and is ill-fitted for a much larger gun. Retired LAPD Capt. Paul Vernon, who oversaw homicide probes, said the style of carry may be familiar to some at a gun range, and investigators will be pursuing the carry method as a signature part of the man’s behavior. Once law enforcement identifies the man’s specific clothing, weapon, and the carry holster, it may trigger someone’s memory and generate a vital tip, Vernon said.

    On Monday, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department addressed reports that there may be video of the suspect at Guthrie’s door on a day prior to her abduction, saying it was inconclusive.

    “We are aware that doorbell images released earlier in the investigation depict a suspect in different stages of attire, including with and without a backpack,” the department statement said. “There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”

    Cellphone pinging: Investigators, particularly those with FBI technical units, will use geo-fencing to scour the cell towers around Guthrie’s home for cellphone users. They will seek to separate out the phones that aren’t usually there. Even if a kidnapper carries a disposable phone with prepaid minutes, also known as a “burner,” investigators will want to identify the phone and see if they can trace its past movements. In a Los Angeles County jewelry heist, investigators last year linked a burner phone from a traffic accident to the heist location and to other crimes. Vernon said that if you identify a phone, it’s possible to see if it pings along a route, say, along the highway from Tucson toward the border.

    Cameras: The investigation is also continuing to try to retrieve other data from cameras around Nancy Guthrie’s home. Detectives have asked residents of the Catalina Foothills neighborhood where Guthrie lived to submit any suspicious behavior captured on security cameras for the entire month before the abduction. Initially, they asked specifically for any videos related to Jan. 11. Authorities haven’t said whether they have evidence that the perpetrator may have surveilled the home before the kidnapping. But it is not uncommon for burglars, robbers and home invaders to be seen on surveillance of a crime in the weeks before, law enforcement experts say.

    [ad_2]

    Richard Winton, Hannah Fry

    Source link

  • What the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down tariffs means for L.A.’s trade-dependent economy

    [ad_1]

    The Supreme Court’s decision Friday to strike down the majority of tariffs imposed by President Trump could provide some relief to L.A.’s trade-reliant economy — but only if they are not reimposed again through other means.

    The court’s 6-3 ruling that Trump didn’t have the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act rolled back levies that have upended international trade.

    “We’ve seen that the tariffs have a significant impact on our supply chain, on our manufacturers and especially on our port logistics and trade sector,” said Stephen Cheung, chief executive of the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

    “I think this decision will have a significant impact on the Los Angeles economy. However, it’s going to take a long time to unravel, so we’ll see specifically how everything is going to pan out,” he said.

    The tariffs dealt a blow to a large swath of businesses in Southern California and across the state, including farmers, automakers, home builders, tech companies and apparel retailers.

    MGA Entertainment, the Chatsworth maker of Bratz dolls, said a little more than half of its products are made in China, while hardware and lumber seller Anawalt in Malibu said the majority of its lumber comes from Canada and nearly all of its steel products are made in China.

    During a news conference Friday following the decision, Trump said that under other legal authorities he would impose a 10% global tariff and pursue additional levies, including a possible 30% tariff on foreign cars. Later in the day he signed an order imposing the 10% tax, which takes effect Feb. 24.

    “The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court — absolutely ashamed,” Trump said. “They’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.”

    Friday’s high-court decision affects up to $170 billion in tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, including 10% to 50% duties and penalties on China, Canada and Mexico.

    Whether importers who paid the tax can seek refunds was left to a lower court to decide. It’s estimated some $100 billion in tariffs were not affected by the decision.

    The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — which handle nearly a third of the nation’s containerized cargo and are the primary trade gateway to Asia — saw a surge of traffic the first half of last year as importers sought to get ahead of the tariffs, largely imposed in April.

    However, traffic tailed off the second half of the year, with the L.A. port expecting a single-digit decline in volume this year before Friday’s decision.

    The twin facilities form the largest ports complex in North America, supporting more than 200,000 jobs and contributing $28 billion to the regional economy in 2022, according to a California Center for Jobs & the Economy report.

    The uncertainty surrounding the tariffs derives from the complexity of the tariffs themselves — as well as the other legal options Trump has to impose them again.

    Mike Jacob, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Assn., which represents ocean carriers, marine terminal operators and others in the industry, said the tendency is to think of the tariffs as uniform.

    “It was different rates for different countries. That was compounded by different rates for different commodities. And there’s a lot of changes that have occurred with specific commodities,” he said. “So it’s almost impossible to take a broad brush and say, here’s what we expect to happen — except to say that it’s still a pretty unsettled space.”

    In imposing a 10% global tariff, Trump would be relying on a provision of the Trade Act of 1974, while his ability to pursue additional levies would rely on other law.

    Economist Jock O’Connell, international trade advisor at L.A.’s Beacon Economics, said that Trump may have authority to impose the 10% global tariffs, but additional levies would involve trade authorities.

    “That would be a cumbersome process. The tariffs have to be more specifically framed and the subject of an investigation,” he said.

    Also complicating the process are trade deals the U.S. has been negotiating with foreign countries based on the tariffs. O’Connell expects they will seek to renegotiate them.

    “They’re likely to come back to the table and say, ‘Well, you don’t have the authority to impose these,’” he said.

    Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said importers are facing tough decisions right now, given that any ocean carrier leaving an Asian port today would not be subject to the tariffs that were struck down.

    “That executive is asking: ‘Are my commodities now exempt from this tariff?’ If the answer is yes, ‘Can I buy more of that product and get it shipped while there are no tariffs?’” he said.

    Those decisions would revolve around such factors as the availability of space on the vessel and local warehouses, as well as trucking services, he said.

    Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the decision should be good news for the larger U.S. economy and businesses on the “front line” of the trade wars, such as transportation, distribution, agriculture and retail.

    “If the president lets the Supreme Court decision stand and doesn’t try to replace the tariffs, that’s a plus for the economy — but that’s not what’s going to happen,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Laurence Darmiento

    Source link

  • Guthrie investigators turn to Mexico, genealogy, pacemaker amid fears the trail is going cold

    [ad_1]

    As the search for Nancy Guthrie stretches into its third week, there is growing concern that the trail to find the missing 84-year-old is rapidly growing cold.

    Investigators have detained two people since Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson-area home in the early hours of Feb. 1. But both were released after questioning and no suspects have been publicly identified.

    Authorities insist the case is still very much active, with the FBI receiving more than 20,000 tips. But the case is branching off into some new directions.

    Look at Mexico

    Law enforcement sources told The Times that investigators have been in touch with Mexican authorities in the case given Tucson’s proximity to the border, but there is no evidence that the abductors crossed with Guthrie.

    The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case candidly.

    The Guthrie home near Tucson is only about an hour’s drive from the border. Sources stressed the request for help from Mexico was to exhaust all options but there is not any clear evidence suggesting either Guthrie or the kidnappers are there.

    State of the investigation

    DNA on a glove discovered two miles away from Guthrie’s home that matched those worn by a masked man seen on Nest camera footage didn’t return any matches in the national DNA database used by law enforcement, CODIS. Biological evidence that was found at Guthrie’s home is still being tested but did not produce a match in CODIS, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News this week.

    An anonymous donor this week gave $100,000 to 88-CRIME for information that would lead investigators to arrest the individual involved in Guthrie’s disappearance. This is in addition to the $100,000 reward for information being offered by the FBI.

    Nanos has tried to dispel concerns that investigators are hitting nothing but dead ends, telling NBC News that “as long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it’s not cold.”

    “We have thousands of leads we’re looking at,” he said. “We’re going to find Nancy, and we’re going to find who did this.”

    So far, experts say investigators’ best bet to solving the case quickly would be if someone recognizes the suspect in Nest video footage, a masked man seen on Guthrie’s porch the morning she was abducted.

    At 1:47 a.m. Feb. 1, the individual appears at the door of Guthrie’s home. The man is wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack. A gun is holstered by the man’s waist, positioned at the front of his body and easily visible.

    At one point, the man, whom authorities describe as approximately 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 10 with an average build, notices the camera on the front porch and tries to cover the lens with his hand. The man scouts around the patio and yard area, apparently for something to obstruct the camera before settling on some greenery found in the yard.

    In the video, the man is wearing a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack that can be purchased at Walmart, according to the FBI. Investigators have been working with Walmart leadership to see if they can identify who purchased the backpack.

    Authorities are also canvassing gun shops, showing the video released by the FBI to see if anyone recognizes him, according to the sheriff’s department.

    Investigators employ genetic genealogy

    DNA found inside the Guthrie home could also prove fruitful in the case, experts say.

    Although law enforcement did not get any hits in the federal database, they are also employing genetic genealogy in an effort to identify a suspect in the case.

    “If they actually have the suspect’s DNA — Nancy’s kidnapper’s DNA — he will be identified through genetic genealogy,” said CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist and co-founder of DNA Justice. “It’s just a matter of time.”

    Authorities can compare DNA collected from Guthrie’s home with publicly accessible databases containing the genetic profiles of millions of people who have given them over for family history research and other reasons. From there, investigators can sometimes find distant relatives to help piece together a family tree that can point to a suspect.

    The technology has helped solve some of the nation’s most high-profile cases in recent years. Investigators used genetic genealogy to identify Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. as the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s. It was also used to secure the conviction of Bryan Kohberger, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering four college students in Idaho in 2022.

    There are limits to the technology, but law enforcement sources told The Times it’s probably the best way forward.

    Law enforcement does not have easy access to the roughly 50 million genetic profiles contained in Ancestry.com, 23andMe and MyHeritage databases. The companies have barred authorities from accessing such information and said they would release it only if compelled by a court order or warrant.

    Databases GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA and DNA Justice are open to law enforcement use but contain fewer than 2 million genetic profiles, Moore said.

    With fewer genetic profiles to work with there is more legwork involved, but Moore said it will probably be key to identifying a suspect.

    “It could happen in minutes, hours, days, weeks, but I don’t think it’ll stretch much longer than that because of all the resources available for this case,” she said.

    Searching for her pacemaker

    Law enforcement has also deployed “signal sniffer” technology in the search for Guthrie.

    Parsons Corp confirmed this week that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department requested its help early this month deploying BlueFly units to search for Guthrie. BlueFly is a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensor that can be used on air and ground vehicles for search and rescue operations in challenging environments, providing authorities with a heat map to identify signals within a specific area, according to the company.

    BlueFly can detect medical devices such as Guthrie’s pacemaker.

    [ad_2]

    Hannah Fry, Richard Winton

    Source link

  • Frustration, fresh clues, new threat: Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case enters third week

    [ad_1]

    As the investigation into the abduction of Nancy Guthrie entered its third week, authorities await key DNA evidence, President Trump threatened the abductors and daughter Savannah Guthrie urged her mother’s kidnappers to “do the right thing.” But with no sign of the 84-year-old, there growing concerns about her welfare and questions about how long the investigation will drag on.

    On Sunday, the FBI said DNA was found on a glove discovered several miles away from Guthrie’s home, and the glove matched those worn by a masked person seen outside the home.

    This could prove a key development in an investigation beset by false starts and stops. No suspects have been named, and local authorities have come under scrutiny over the lack or progress and certain tactical decisions. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County told CBS News that investigators believe the clothing and face mask worn by the suspect were purchased at a Walmart.

    Savannah Guthrie issued a statement on Instagram Sunday pleading with the kidnappers.

    “And I wanted to say to whoever has her or knows where she is that it’s never too late, and you’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing,” she said. “We are here and we believe, and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late.”

    Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tuscon home Feb. 1. The kidnapping drama has captivated the nation but until now there have been relatively few leads.

    Investigators got their first major break in the case Tuesday with the release of footage showing an armed man wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack. The man was seen approaching the front door of Guthrie’s home and tampering with a Nest camera at 1:47 a.m. the night she was abducted.

    On Tuesday, authorities detained a man at a traffic stop in Rio Rico, a semirural community about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, in connection with the investigation. Deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not locate Guthrie. The man was released hours later and has denied any involvement in her disappearance. The Times is not naming him because he has not been arrested or accused of a crime.

    Authorities served a search warrant at a home in Tucson on Friday night in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie but made no arrests.

    President Trump on Monday told the New York Post that the kidnappers would face “very, very severe — the most severe” punishment. When asked if he was referring to the death penalty, the president said: “The most, yeah — that’s true.”

    Nancy Guthrie was discovered missing Feb. 1 after she didn’t show up to a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without her heart medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.

    A day after Guthrie disappeared, news outlets received identical ransom notes that investigators treated as legitimate.

    Sources told The Times that authorities have no proof the person who authored the ransom notes has Guthrie. But they also said the Feb. 2 note felt credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the placement of an accessory in the home that had not been made public.

    [ad_2]

    Richard Winton

    Source link

  • Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation draws scrutiny as case drags on

    [ad_1]

    Nancy Guthrie had been missing less than three days when family members and reporters, and even an Amazon delivery worker, could be seen wandering onto her property, with drops of her blood still staining the front entryway.

    It’s been nearly two weeks since the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie was abducted. With no suspects in custody as of Saturday, scrutiny is growing over how authorities have handled the case.

    Some questions have focused on Pima County (Ariz.) Sheriff Chris Nanos and his department, which was the first to respond when Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson home Feb. 1. Since then, Nanos has been the leading law enforcement communicator on the investigation, including after reports emerged of ransom notes demanding millions of dollars in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s return.

    The global spotlight is now on him.

    “I’m not used to everyone hanging on to my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say,” Nanos said at a press conference early in the probe. “This is really, for me, pretty new.”

    Critics pointed out his department opened up the crime scene a day after Guthrie was reported missing and sent vital evidence across the country to be analyzed for free, and the sheriff was seen at a weekend college basketball game while a ransom deadline still hung over the family.

    President Trump has even weighed in on the issue.

    “It was a local case originally, and they didn’t want to let go of it, which is fine,” President Trump said when asked about the case at the White House on Friday. “It’s up to them, it’s really up to the community, but ultimately where the FBI got involved, I think, you know, progress has been made.”

    Guthrie was discovered missing after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without any of her heart medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.

    Though she initially was considered missing, the urgency to quickly find Guthrie pulsed through the first days of media coverage because of her heart condition. So it came as a surprise to some observers that just a day after she’d been reported missing, Nanos declared the crime scene clear and released the home back to the family.

    Forensic workers had processed the ranch-style home for evidence, including DNA and fingerprints, but could not recover images from a Ring camera because the family did not pay for a subscription to back up the recordings, Nanos said.

    Afterward, as the home stood unguarded, reporters, photographers and others wandered the property, walking to the front door and capturing video of blood drops along the porch.

    The crime scene eventually was closed again so the FBI could conduct its own search, and Nanos told reporters opening the scene up the first time may have been premature.

    “Monday morning quarterback. Absolutely. I probably could have held off on that,” Nanos said at a news conference, with top FBI agents flanking him.

    Sheriff‘s deputies eventually were stationed outside home, but even so, a pizza delivery driver walked food that had been ordered for someone in the neighborhood up to the door of the Guthrie home. On Friday, a company showed up to service Guthrie’s backyard pool, which was accommodated at the “request of the Guthrie family,” the sheriff’s department said.

    Breaks in the investigation have come in fits and starts.

    After searching the home last week, FBI technicians have been processing evidence from in and around it. Testing revealed the blood drops outside the door belonged to Guthrie.

    Then, a series of ransom notes arrived in the tip boxes of two Tucson television stations and TMZ, seeking $4 million and $6 million in bitcoin, and included details about Guthrie’s home.

    The fact that law enforcement announced Guthrie disappeared and then publicly gave credence to reports she was being held for ransom put authorities at a disadvantage, said Adam Bercovici, who has worked multiple kidnappings as the former supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department’s special investigations unit.

    “It is a debacle,” he said. “This kidnapping is one of the worst cases of incompetence I have seen.”

    With so much information floating around, Bercovici said, it would be difficult to verify a legitimate ransom demand. Indeed, not long after news about the ransom notes broke, officials said a man in Hawthorne sent an imposter demand to the Guthries. He has been charged with a federal crime.

    Much is still unknown about the details inside the investigation and exactly what evidence detectives have collected. Because of this, it will take time to fully assess their tactics and truly understand the complexity of the case.

    The first big break in the case came Tuesday, when the FBI released surveillance videos of someone approaching Guthrie’s door wearing a holstered gun, ski mask and backpack. The videos, recovered by Google engineers, provided the first look at Guthrie’s kidnapper and last less than a minute. More than 4,000 tips flooded law enforcement agencies in the 24 hours after the images were broadcast.

    By the following evening, sheriff‘s investigators were detaining a 36-year-old man after a traffic stop south of Tucson. Sheriff’s officials announced they obtained a court-approved search warrant for his Rio Rico home, immediately raising expectations among those closely watching the case.

    But those hopes soon were deflated.

    Surrounded by the throng of cameras and reporters, investigators and FBI forensic technicians swarmed the man’s home. His mother-in-law, under the glare of camera lights, declared him innocent, saying she didn’t know who Savannah Guthrie was, and told them “you won’t find anything here, we have nothing to hide.”

    By the next morning, the man was free and his house cleared of investigators. The Times is not naming him because he has not been arrested or accused of any wrongdoing.

    “I hope they get the suspect because I am not it,” the man told reporters. “And they better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name.”

    On Friday night, authorities served a search warrant at a home in Tucson and swarmed a parked Range Rover. In the end, officials said no arrests were made.

    Investigators are casting an even wider net to find photos, videos and any other clues. Other people in the area should expect to be detained and questioned, Nanos told local station KOLD.

    On Thursday, authorities revealed a series of images of men in the dark with backpacks near cars and homes. About two miles from the Guthrie home, investigators discovered a glove on the ground, then several others farther from the home, the sheriff’s department announced Friday. They’ll all be analyzed for DNA in hopes it leads to the 84-year-old grandmother. The department said other DNA found at the home did not match Guthrie or anyone in close contact with her, and investigators are working to identify who it belongs to.

    Meanwhile, the FBI doubled its reward for information this week to $100,000 and released a description of the person seen at her front door.

    “The suspect is described as a male, approximately 5’9” – 5’10” tall, with an average build. In the video, he is wearing a black, 25-liter ‘Ozark Trail Hiker Pack’ backpack,” the bureau said. More than 13,000 tips have flowed into the bureau.

    On Friday, the sheriff’s department sought to quash rumors that there was a divide between local and federal investigators, centered around the handling of evidence and which lab it should be sent to.

    “Our strong partnership is critical, and we remain fully committed to this collaborative investigation. To ensure consistency and streamline testing, evidence requiring forensic analysis is being sent to the same out-of-state lab that has been utilized since the beginning of this case,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “This decision was discussed with and agreed upon by local FBI leadership.”

    But Nanos himself expressed frustration about the pace of the probe.

    “It’s exhausting, these ups and downs. But we will keep moving forward,” he told the New York Times. “Maybe it’s an hour from now. Maybe it’s weeks or months or years from now. But we won’t quit. We’re going to find Nancy. We’re going to find this guy.”

    [ad_2]

    Richard Winton, Hannah Fry

    Source link

  • Investigators search second home in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case

    [ad_1]

    Authorities served a search warrant at a home in Tucson on Friday night in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, who investigators say was kidnapped from her nearby home 13 days ago.

    A SWAT team converged on a house about two miles from Guthrie’s Arizona residence and removed two people from inside, law enforcement sources told The Times.

    A man and a woman complied with orders to exit the home, News Nation reported. It is unclear what role, if any, the people may have played in Guthrie’s disappearance, which has flummoxed investigators for almost two weeks.

    A Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson confirmed late Friday that there was “law enforcement activity underway” at a home near E Orange Grove Road and N. First Avenue related to the Guthrie case, but declined to share additional information.

    The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Around midnight, federal agents and sheriff investigators focused their attention on a silver Range Rover SUV parked outside a restaurant about two miles away from the home that was being searched. After taking photographs of the vehicle, agents opened the trunk of the SUV using a tarp to block onlookers view inside the vehicle, video shows.

    It is not clear what, if anything, was found.

    Investigators got their first major break in the case Tuesday with the release of footage showing an armed man wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack approaching the front door of Guthrie’s home and tampering with a Nest camera at 1:47 a.m. the night she was abducted.

    “Today” host Savannah Guthrie with her mother, Nancy, in 2023.

    (Nathan Congleton / NBC via Getty Images)

    Later Tuesday, authorities detained a man at a traffic stop in Rio Rico, a semirural community about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, in connection with the investigation. Deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not locate Guthrie. The man was released hours later and has denied any involvement in her disappearance. The Times is not naming him because he has not been arrested or accused of a crime.

    Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, was discovered missing Feb. 1 after she didn’t show up to a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without her heart medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.

    A day after Guthrie disappeared, news outlets received identical ransom notes that investigators treated as legitimate. Days later, a note was sent directly to the Guthrie family, allegedly from a man living in Hawthorne, that authorities say was an impostor.

    Another ransom note was sent to a television station in Arizona last week.

    Sources told The Times that authorities have no proof the person who authored the ransom notes has Guthrie. But they also said the Feb. 2 note felt credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the placement of an accessory in the home that had not been made public.

    On Friday, TMZ said it received a letter from someone claiming to know the identity of the person who abducted Guthrie and demanding the $100,000 FBI reward in bitcoin. The person wrote they don’t trust the FBI, which is why they’re sending the communication through TMZ, the website’s founder, Harvey Levin, told CNN.

    “The manhunt of the main individual that can give you all the answers be prepared to go international,” the letter reads, according to Levin.

    Authorities have released limited details about other evidence in the case.

    A woman walks her dog past a Pima county sheriff's vehicle parked in front of Nancy Guthrie's home

    A woman walks her dog past a Pima county sheriff’s vehicle parked in front of Nancy Guthrie’s home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz.

    (Ty ONeil / Associated Press)

    However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Friday that investigators located several gloves, including some found about two miles from Guthrie’s home, that are being tested.

    Authorities also found DNA evidence that does not belong to Guthrie or members of her family at her home. Investigators are working to identify whom the DNA belongs to, according to the sheriff’s department.

    Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report

    [ad_2]

    Clara Harter, Richard Winton

    Source link

  • Experts say screening tips in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is ‘tremendous’ and critical work

    [ad_1]

    An Arizona sheriff’s department got more than 4,000 calls within 24 hours after the release of videos of a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch. Many tips will be worthless. Others could have merit. Experts say one thing’s certain: They can’t be ignored.Tips can solve crimes — big or small — and eerie images of a mysterious male covered head to toe have been the most significant clues shared with the public during Guthrie’s nearly two-week-old disappearance in the Tucson area.“It’s a tremendous amount of work,” said Roberto Villaseñor, a former Tucson police chief.“In a situation like this, you really cannot do what’s been done without tips and public input,” he said. “They have processed the scene. But once that’s done and exhausted, it’s hard to move forward without additional information coming in.”Tens of thousands of tipsThe Pima County sheriff and the FBI announced phone numbers and a website to offer tips about the apparent kidnapping of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. Several hundred detectives and agents have been assigned to the case, the sheriff’s department said.The FBI said it has collected more than 13,000 tips since Feb. 1, the day when Guthrie was reported missing. The sheriff’s department, meanwhile, said it has taken at least 18,000 calls.”Every tip is reviewed for credibility, relevance, and information that can be acted upon by law enforcement,” the FBI said Thursday on X, adding that the effort is a 24-hour operation. It said it won’t comment on the tips received.Video above: FBI shares video in Nancy Guthrie caseTips have blown open investigations many timesMajor U.S. crimes for years have been cracked with a tip. In 1995, the brother and sister-in-law of Ted Kaczynski recognized certain tones in an anonymous, widely published anti-technology manifesto. Known by the FBI as the “Unabomber,” Kaczynski was found living in a shack in Montana and subsequently admitted to committing 16 bombings over 17 years, killing three people.The 1989 murders of an Ohio woman and two teen daughters in Florida were solved three years later when St. Petersburg police asked the public if they recognized handwriting found in the victims’ car. A former neighbor led investigators to Oba Chandler.Retired Detroit homicide investigator Ira Todd recalled how images from a gas station camera solved the disappearance and death of a 3-month-old baby — and stopped authorities from pursuing the wrong person in 2001. “A niece of this guy saw it on TV and says, ‘That’s my uncle,’” he said.The murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022 generated nearly 40,000 tips to state and federal authorities. None had a direct role in the capture of Bryan Kohberger, but the public’s involvement nonetheless was “absolutely” important, said Lt. Darren Gilbertson of the Idaho State Police.“That’s one of the things that kept us going for weeks,” he said, while authorities awaited DNA and other evidence.Sorting the helpful from the conspiracyGilbertson said much of the early vetting was done by the FBI. He said agents and analysts who were screening tips had a good grasp of what information could be spiked and what should be handed up to key investigators. Some tips arrived by regular mail.“Aliens to bears to crazy conspiratorial ideas — don’t even pass that along,” Gilbertson said.Nancy Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Hours before her family knew she was gone, a porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves — images that were released by the FBI along with a public plea for help. The FBI on Thursday said the person, who they now consider a suspect, is a male, about 5-foot, 9-inches tall with a medium build. The agency also named the brand and model of the backpack.The sheriff’s department has not said whether any tips tied to the videos have advanced the investigation.“I’m hopeful,” said Villaseñor, the former Tucson chief. “I have seen cases where simpler and less detailed information has helped bring somebody about. Maybe someone recognizes clothing, maybe the bag. You never know what someone will key on.”

    TUCSON, Ariz. —

    An Arizona sheriff’s department got more than 4,000 calls within 24 hours after the release of videos of a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch. Many tips will be worthless. Others could have merit. Experts say one thing’s certain: They can’t be ignored.

    Tips can solve crimes — big or small — and eerie images of a mysterious male covered head to toe have been the most significant clues shared with the public during Guthrie’s nearly two-week-old disappearance in the Tucson area.

    “It’s a tremendous amount of work,” said Roberto Villaseñor, a former Tucson police chief.

    “In a situation like this, you really cannot do what’s been done without tips and public input,” he said. “They have processed the scene. But once that’s done and exhausted, it’s hard to move forward without additional information coming in.”

    Tens of thousands of tips

    The Pima County sheriff and the FBI announced phone numbers and a website to offer tips about the apparent kidnapping of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. Several hundred detectives and agents have been assigned to the case, the sheriff’s department said.

    The FBI said it has collected more than 13,000 tips since Feb. 1, the day when Guthrie was reported missing. The sheriff’s department, meanwhile, said it has taken at least 18,000 calls.

    “Every tip is reviewed for credibility, relevance, and information that can be acted upon by law enforcement,” the FBI said Thursday on X, adding that the effort is a 24-hour operation. It said it won’t comment on the tips received.

    FBI via AP

    This combo from images provided by the FBI shows surveillance footage at the home of Nancy Guthrie the night she went missing in Tucson, Ariz.

    Video above: FBI shares video in Nancy Guthrie case

    Tips have blown open investigations many times

    Major U.S. crimes for years have been cracked with a tip. In 1995, the brother and sister-in-law of Ted Kaczynski recognized certain tones in an anonymous, widely published anti-technology manifesto. Known by the FBI as the “Unabomber,” Kaczynski was found living in a shack in Montana and subsequently admitted to committing 16 bombings over 17 years, killing three people.

    The 1989 murders of an Ohio woman and two teen daughters in Florida were solved three years later when St. Petersburg police asked the public if they recognized handwriting found in the victims’ car. A former neighbor led investigators to Oba Chandler.

    Retired Detroit homicide investigator Ira Todd recalled how images from a gas station camera solved the disappearance and death of a 3-month-old baby — and stopped authorities from pursuing the wrong person in 2001. “A niece of this guy saw it on TV and says, ‘That’s my uncle,’” he said.

    The murders of four University of Idaho students in 2022 generated nearly 40,000 tips to state and federal authorities. None had a direct role in the capture of Bryan Kohberger, but the public’s involvement nonetheless was “absolutely” important, said Lt. Darren Gilbertson of the Idaho State Police.

    “That’s one of the things that kept us going for weeks,” he said, while authorities awaited DNA and other evidence.

    Sorting the helpful from the conspiracy

    Gilbertson said much of the early vetting was done by the FBI. He said agents and analysts who were screening tips had a good grasp of what information could be spiked and what should be handed up to key investigators. Some tips arrived by regular mail.

    “Aliens to bears to crazy conspiratorial ideas — don’t even pass that along,” Gilbertson said.

    Nancy Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Hours before her family knew she was gone, a porch camera recorded video of a person with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves — images that were released by the FBI along with a public plea for help. The FBI on Thursday said the person, who they now consider a suspect, is a male, about 5-foot, 9-inches tall with a medium build. The agency also named the brand and model of the backpack.

    The sheriff’s department has not said whether any tips tied to the videos have advanced the investigation.

    “I’m hopeful,” said Villaseñor, the former Tucson chief. “I have seen cases where simpler and less detailed information has helped bring somebody about. Maybe someone recognizes clothing, maybe the bag. You never know what someone will key on.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Second video offers more clues in Nancy Guthrie abduction as authorities seek more

    [ad_1]

    Authorities are examining security camera footage from a home in the Tucson area near Nancy Guthrie’s property that shows a man wearing a backpack trying to scale a wall near a home the morning of her disappearance.

    The video, which was captured on a Ring camera about 1:54 a.m. Feb. 1, shows a bald man wearing a gray jacket and a backpack similar to the one worn by the masked man outside Guthrie’s door before she was abducted. Another video, which is also being reviewed, shows a man wearing a baseball cap and a black backpack pulling on a car door handle outside a home in the neighborhood the morning after the 84-year-old vanished.

    Sources told The Times the videos are being looked at as part of the investigation into Guthrie’s abduction. But it’s unclear whether or how they might be connected.

    Sheriff‘s officials have also asked residents to pull any video from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2 that includes vehicles, people or anything deemed “out of the ordinary” or possibly important to the investigation.

    Kimberlee Guluzian, a lecturer at Cal State Long Beach and a forensic consultant who spent decades as a crime scene investigator, said that in addition to reviewing videos, detectives probably are pulling data from license plate readers and cell towers to see who was in the area in the days and weeks before Guthrie’s kidnapping.

    It could be an indication that authorities suspect the person may have cased Guthrie’s home before the abduction, she said.

    “They’re trying to look for people or cars that typically aren’t in the area,” she said. “So if it was a rental car, they’re going to try to get a license plate and go back to the company to see who rented that vehicle. They’re just trying to find any lead possible at this point.”

    The latest piece of video evidence comes as Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says more people are likely to be detained in the case.

    Guthrie was discovered missing from her home 12 days ago after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without any of her medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.

    Guthrie’s children have been holding on to hope that their mother will be found. “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, one of her daughters, posted a tribute to her mother on Instagram on Thursday morning.

    The short video shows a much younger Nancy Guthrie picking pink flowers in the garden with her elementary school-aged children. Guthrie smiles as one of her young daughters places the flowers near her nose, an invitation to smell the fragrant blossoms.

    “Our lovely mom. We will never give up on her,” Savannah Guthrie wrote in the caption. “Thank you for your prayers and hope.”

    The unusual case has seemingly hit a host of dead ends in recent days.

    Authorities on Tuesday detained a 36-year-old man after a traffic stop south of Tucson, but released him hours later. Deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not locate Guthrie. Authorities have not said whether or how he might be connected to the case or what evidence led them to search his family’s home.

    A Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said the man’s detention “was part of follow-up on incoming leads.”

    Footage from the Nest camera outside Guthrie’s home led to roughly 4,000 new tips over the course of 24 hours, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Meanwhile, investigators on Wednesday scoured along roadways in the foothills north of Tucson for any evidence that could help them crack the case.

    Investigators discovered “several items of evidence including gloves” that are being tested, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

    [ad_2]

    Richard Winton, Hannah Fry

    Source link

  • ‘Very strong’ clues in Nancy Guthrie abduction, Trump says, as authorities race against time to find her

    [ad_1]

    Investigators again scoured the desert brush outside the Tucson home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, as officials were reviewing a new message that could be tied to her abduction.

    At the same time, President Trump said on Air Force One on Friday night that investigators have “very strong” clues, believing “we could have some answers coming up fairly soon.”

    “We have some things, I think that will maybe come out reasonably soon, from DOJ or FBI, or whoever, that could be, could be definitive. A lot has taken place in the last couple of hours. A lot of things have happened with regard to that horrible situation in the last couple of hours,” he said.

    Little is known about the new message and whether it has been tied to kidnappers.

    FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s officials confirmed they were aware of the message, and said they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.”

    Guthrie was last seen by her family just after 9:45 p.m. Saturday, which officials said matched with when her garage door opened and closed that night.

    About four hours later, at 1:47 a.m., officials said her doorbell camera disconnected. An empty frame for the camera had been previously noted at her home.

    Then at 2:12 a.m., the security camera software at Guthrie’s home detected a person — or an animal — on one of the home’s cameras, but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they have not been able to recover that footage and don’t know which camera recorded the movement.

    About 15 minutes later, at 2:28 a.m., Nancy’s pacemaker app shows that it was a disconnect from the phone, Nanos said. That appears to be exactly when she left her home, as her phone was left behind.

    Her family went to check on her at home, finding her missing, just before noon Sunday, after she hadn’t shown up for church. They almost immediately called 911, Nanos said.

    An earlier ransom note appears to be at the center of the effort to find her.

    Although the entire note has not been released, some details that were included have been shared publicly. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division. He declined to say what, if anything, was requested at each deadline, or if there was a threat if the deadlines weren’t met.

    Nancy’s son, Camron Guthrie, released a video statement pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter’s first deadline.

    “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”

    Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.”

    TMZ reported receiving the alleged note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.

    The family and authorities are particularly worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven’t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption — despite real concerns she could be dead.

    [ad_2]

    Richard Winton, Grace Toohey

    Source link

  • 4 dead, including 2 children, from carbon monoxide poisoning in Ocala

    [ad_1]

    The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says four people, including two children, were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in an Ocala home. Deputies said they were called to a home on Banyan Track Way, near Southeast 58th Avenue in Ocala, shortly before 10:30 p.m. on Friday for a well-being check. At that home, deputies said they found two adults and two children dead inside.Investigators initially called their deaths suspicious, but have since confirmed there is no foul play involved. The identities of the deceased were not immediately released.> This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is released.

    OCALA, Fla. —

    The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says four people, including two children, were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in an Ocala home.

    Deputies said they were called to a home on Banyan Track Way, near Southeast 58th Avenue in Ocala, shortly before 10:30 p.m. on Friday for a well-being check.

    At that home, deputies said they found two adults and two children dead inside.

    Investigators initially called their deaths suspicious, but have since confirmed there is no foul play involved.

    The identities of the deceased were not immediately released.

    > This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is released.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • U.S. case dims hope in Mexico for extradition of alleged mastermind of journalist’s killing

    [ad_1]

    MEXICO CITY — The imprisonment of a cartel member in the U.S. has dashed hopes in Mexico for justice in one of the country’s most notorious slayings — the death of acclaimed journalist Javier Valdez, who was gunned down in broad daylight two blocks from his newspaper office in the cartel-embattled city of Culiacán.

    The brazen assassination in 2017 of Valdez — a tireless chronicler of cartel violence and politicians’ links to organized crime — sparked international condemnation. The slaying dramatized the perils faced by journalists in Mexico, where scores have been slain in recent years.

    Valdez’s assassination remains the most notorious killing of a Mexican journalist in decades.

    While two gunmen are serving prison terms in Mexico, authorities here have long sought the extradition from the United Stares of the alleged mastermind: Dámaso López Serrano, a former Sinaloa cartel capo and the son of a close associate of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the imprisoned co-founder of the Sinaloa syndicate.

    Mexican authorities and fellow journalists say López Serrano likely ordered the hit because the journalist had mocked the young narco mercilessly in Ríodoce, the weekly co-founded by Valdez.

    On May 8, 2017, Valdez wrote a scathing column dismissing López Serrano as a “junior” party-boy and fake “weekend” pistolero who moved around ostentatiously with 20 bodyguards, “excelled at chit-chat but not business,” and failed to fill the shoes of his father.

    One week later, on May 15, assassins forced Valdez, 50, from his car at midday and shot him at least a dozen times in downtown Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state. His body was left on the street amid shell casings; his signature Panama hat was streaked with blood.

    López Serrano, a godson of El Chapo, fled inter-mob bloodletting a few months later and surrendered to U.S. authorities along the border in Calexico, California. He later pleaded guilty to trafficking tons of cocaine and other narcotics into the United States. He was never charged in U.S. courts with the murder of Valdez.

    He is the son of Dámaso López Núñez, the El Chapo confidante known as El Licenciado, or The Lawyer. The son’s mob handle is Mini Lic. His father and El Chapo are both serving life terms in U.S. prisons.

    López Serrano served only five years in U.S. custody on the trafficking conviction. According to media accounts and Mexican officials, he agreed to become a cooperating witness for U.S. prosecutors pursuing other traffickers.

    López Serrano was released from federal custody after serving his term and allowed to remain in the United States. However, the FBI re-arrested him in 2024 in connection with a scheme to distribute fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid.

    On Wednesday, a federal judge in Virginia sentenced López Serrano to five years in prison on the fentanyl rap, to be followed by five years of supervised release.

    The new sentence dismayed those who hoped López Serrano would soon be brought back to Mexico to stand trial.

    “It’s painful and outrageous to know that the person who ordered Javier’s murder will continue avoiding his deserved punishment in Mexico,” Griselda Tirana, the journalist’s widow, wrote on Facebook.

    She has long been at the forefront of efforts to pressure Washington to hand over López Serrano.

    But there is a serious hurdle: U.S. prosecutors have viewed López Serrano as too valuable a source on the Mexican underworld to ship him back south, according to Mexico’s former Atty. Gen. Alejandro Gertz Manero, who said he pressed the extradition demand with counterparts in Washington.

    “They said he was a protected witness of the government of the United States and he was giving them a lot of information,” Gertz Manero told reporters in December 2024, after López Serrano was arrested in the fentanyl scheme. “And, because of that, they couldn’t help us.”

    In May, journalists, human rights activists and others gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on the anniversary of Valdez’s killing, demanding that López Serrano be sent to Mexico to face justice.

    That same month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexican authorities would “insist” on the extradition of López Serrano.

    The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on the case.

    Advocates say they plan to continue pressing the U.S. government, even though many lack optimism that Washington will ever relent.

    “We are going to keep demanding — as we have since the assassination of Javier — that everyone, including the mastermind of this crime, be punished,” said Roxana Vivanco, news editor at Ríodoce, Valdez’s former publication. “We hope that, this time around, once he finishes his sentence in the United States he will be returned to Mexico to be judged for the killing of Javier.”

    As casualties mount among Mexican media personnel — and their assailants go free — many in Mexico view the case as a litmus test. The central question: Will there ever come a time when justice will prevail — and impunity will recede — in cases of Mexican journalists targeted by organized crime, corrupt politicians and others?

    To date, the Valdez investigation has followed a distressing pattern: Hired trigger-men are sent to prison, their arrests lauded by Mexican authorities, while the “intellectual authors,” or masterminds, remain free.

    “If this, the most high-profile case isn’t solved, then we cannot hold our breaths for resolutions in less high-profile cases,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexican representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press advocacy group.

    “So this is a really, really important case,” Hootsen added. “We really need for this man to be extradited to Mexico eventually and stand trial.”

    Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Patrick J. McDonnell

    Source link

  • The Nancy Guthrie ransom note was ‘carefully crafted,’ listed two deadlines, contained key details

    [ad_1]

    A ransom note demanding money in exchange for the return of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was “carefully crafted” and included details not previously released to the public, according to people who have read it.

    The note has taken center stage as authorities are still frantically trying to find Nancy Guthrie, 84, after her apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home. Her family has now made two heartfelt videos pleading with her suspected kidnappers to communicate with them.

    Officials say they are taking the ransom note seriously, but still have not identified any suspects in the case. On Friday, the fifth day since Guthrie disappeared, Arizona news outlet KOLD reported it received a new note from the alleged abductor. The station did not report details from the new letter, but said that “the new note contains information the senders seem to think will prove to investigators they’re the same people who sent the first note.”

    FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s officials confirmed they were aware of the message and said they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.” Members of a federal forensic task force were visible at the news station Friday afternoon.

    It’s been years since such a high-profile abduction case, particularly one with alleged ransom demands, has captured the nation’s attention quite like this. Experts who work on such cases say Guthrie’s abduction appears to have been intricately planned, given the lack of DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene and how officials — even the nation’s top internet-based exploitation investigators — do not appear to have traced the ransom letter’s origin.

    “Whoever did this came very prepared,” Tracy Schandler Walder, a former FBI agent who has been following the case, said on Instagram.

    Two deadlines

    Although the entire note has not been released, some details that were included have been shared publicly. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division. He declined to say what, if anything, was requested at each deadline, or if there was a threat if the deadlines weren’t met.

    Nancy’s son, Camron Guthrie, issued a video pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter’s first deadline.

    “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”

    Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.”

    TMZ reported receiving the alleged note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.

    The family and authorities are particularly worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven’t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption — despite real concerns she could be dead.

    “I’m fearful of that. I think we all are,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. “This is Day 4 or 5 and still we don’t know that she’s getting her medication, and that could in itself be fatal.”

    ‘Carefully crafted letter’

    Levin and a Tucson-area journalist, both who said they’ve seen the ransom note, offered a few additional details.

    “This is a letter that really spells out precisely what they want done, what the consequences are if they don’t get what they want,” Levin said in another interview with CNN.

    “They began the letter by saying that Nancy is OK, but scared,” Levin said, adding that it includes a line saying there will be no way to reply or contact the sender.

    “They went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous,” he said. “It is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes.”

    Unique details

    Law enforcement sources, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity, said the ransom note is being considered legitimate because it contained at least two details about Guthrie’s home that hadn’t been made public.

    Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division, said that there were details about an Apple Watch and a floodlight, but declined to elaborate.

    According to Levin, the note mentioned a specific detail about the Apple Watch, which he found to be key.

    “That placement of the Apple Watch, if this is true, is something where they would immediately take this seriously,” Levin told CNN.

    Mary Coleman, an anchor at KOLD-TV, added: “A lot of it is information that only someone who is holding her for ransom would know — some very sensitive information and things that people who were there when she was taken captive would know.”

    Race against time

    Authorities describe the investigation as a race against time.

    “Right now we believe Nancy is still out there. We want her home,” Nanos said at Thursday’s news conference. A massive team of local and federal partners continue to work “round the clock” on the case, he said, including specialized agents with the FBI.

    “There has been no proof of life,” Janke said. “…Time is of the essence.”

    Although Guthrie is of sound mind, family have said she has physical ailments and uses a pacemaker.

    “She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine,” Savannah Guthrie said in the first video she posted to social media about her mother’s abduction, where she also appears to address the captors directly. “She needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.”

    She begged for whoever took her mother to contact the family.

    “We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her,” she said in the video shared on Instagram. “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.”

    FBI officials have said they are working with the family, but ultimately any decision about how to respond to the ransom demand is up to the Guthries.

    Horace Frank, a former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who oversaw kidnapping investigations, said the family’s videos try to appeal to the captor’s humanity.

    “You are trying to make it difficult for the those behind this,” Frank said. He said he’s glad the entirety of the note hasn’t been released, because the case becomes more difficult as more details are made public.

    “If you give too much information, the problem is you could be compromising some of these deadlines,” Walder, the former FBI agent, said on Instagram.

    While experts have called this case unique, both for its circumstances and the media involvement, it is not the first kidnapping and ransom scenario to fascinate the public.

    In 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped. She was abducted from UC Berkeley by a small cadre of Bay Area militant radicals, who demanded her family pay to feed the poor en masse. Her parents complied with the ransom, but Patty Hearst remained with her captors. It’s now unclear, however, how much of that decision was hers, or the group’s, because she would go on to pledge her allegiance to her captors and their cause and even robbed a bank with them.

    In 1963, Frank Sinatra’s son was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe lodge. His family worked with the FBI to comply with a ransom demand for $240,000, and their 19-year-old son was released. The entire ordeal lasted just four days.

    Several decades earlier, however, a ransom payment didn’t end well for the family of Charles Lindbergh, famed American aviator, whose 1-year-old son was kidnapped from his New Jersey home in 1932. The Lindbergh family ended up paying $50,000 through a mediator, but the baby was not returned as promised, and later found dead.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Grace Toohey, Richard Winton

    Source link

  • US appeals court says Secretary Noem’s decision to end protections for Venezuelans in US was illegal

    [ad_1]

    A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.“The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.“The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”“It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.

    A federal appeals court ruled late Wednesday that the Trump administration acted illegally when it ended legal protections that gave hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela permission to live and work in the United States.

    A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem exceeded her authority when she ended temporary protected status for Venezuelans.

    The decision, however, will not have any immediate practical effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed Noem’s decision to take effect pending a final decision by the justices.

    An email late Wednesday night to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.

    The 9th Circuit panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that Noem exceeded her authority when she decided to end TPS early for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti.

    A federal judge in Washington is expected to rule any day now on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haiti while a separate lawsuit challenging it proceeds. The country’s TPS designation is scheduled to end on Feb. 3.

    Ninth Circuit Judges Kim Wardlaw, Salvador Mendoza, Jr. and Anthony Johnstone said in Wednesday’s ruling that the TPS legislation passed by Congress did not give the secretary the power to vacate an existing TPS designation. All three judges were nominated by Democratic presidents.

    “The statute contains numerous procedural safeguards that ensure individuals with TPS enjoy predictability and stability during periods of extraordinary and temporary conditions in their home country,” Judge Kim Wardlaw, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, wrote for the panel.

    Wardlaw said Noem’s “unlawful actions have had real and significant consequences” for Venezuelans and Haitians in the United States who rely on TPS.

    “The record is replete with examples of hard-working, contributing members of society — who are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and partners of U.S. citizens, pay taxes, and have no criminal records — who have been deported or detained after losing their TPS,” she wrote.

    Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, authorized by Congress as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows the Homeland Security secretary to grant legal immigration status to people fleeing countries experiencing civil strife, environmental disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” that prevent a safe return to that home country.

    Designations are granted for terms of six, 12 or 18 months, and extensions can be granted so long as conditions remain dire. The status prevents holders from being deported and allows them to work, but it does not give them a path to citizenship.

    In ending the protections, Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow immigrants from the two countries to stay on for what is a temporary program.

    Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger. The country is mired in a prolonged crisis brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.

    Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless. Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence.

    Mendoza wrote separately that there was “ample evidence of racial and national origin animus” that reinforced the lower court’s conclusion that Noem’s decisions were “preordained and her reasoning pretextual.”

    “It is clear that the Secretary’s vacatur actions were not actually grounded in substantive policy considerations or genuine differences with respect to the prior administration’s TPS procedures, but were instead rooted in a stereotype-based diagnosis of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti as dangerous criminals or mentally unwell,” he wrote.

    Attorneys for the government have argued the secretary has clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and those decisions are not subject to judicial review. They have also denied that her actions were motived by racial animus.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Gas explosion, fire on top floors of New York City apartment building kills 1, injures 14

    [ad_1]

    A gas explosion sent fire racing through the top floors of a high-rise apartment building in New York City early Saturday, killing one person and injuring 14 others as temperatures plunged into the single digits overnight, authorities said.Firefighters responded shortly before 12:30 a.m. to the 17-story building in the Bronx, where people were seen leaning out of windows calling for help as flames engulfed parts of the top floors, officials said.Chief John Esposito said firefighters were investigating reports of a gas odor on the 15th and 16th floors when the explosion occurred. He said there was major structural damage to about a dozen apartments and fires in 10 apartments on the 16th and 17th floors.Authorities did not immediately release information on the person who died. Another person was critically injured, five had serious injuries and eight had minor injuries, officials said.Officials said the building had been undergoing renovations, and work on the natural gas system had been completed and inspected. The cause of the explosion was under investigation. The building was formerly run by the New York City Housing Authority, but it has been under private management since 2024, city officials said.”It’s an incredible tragedy. We’re sending all our thoughts to the families involved,” Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning, said at a morning news conference.Mayor Zohran Mamdani said all utilities in the building were shut down, and all 148 apartments vacated. Officials set up a reception center for the displaced residents at a nearby school, and the American Red Cross was there to help provide housing and other needs.”As you can imagine, this has been a deeply frightening and devastating morning for them,” Mamdani said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. “They are not alone. Our city will stand by them and do everything in our power to help them get back on their feet.”The Red Cross said it had registered more than 100 households and 305 people, including 89 children, for emergency aid by early Saturday afternoon.More than 200 fire and emergency crews worked the scene, according to the fire department. When the explosion occurred, some firefighters were trapped briefly in an elevator, officials said.”There were injuries. It was a very, very difficult night on a very cold night, which caused even more difficulty,” Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.Around half a million New Yorkers live in aging buildings run by the city’s housing authority, known as NYCHA, which is the largest in the nation.Many of the properties date back to the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. In 2019, a federal monitor was appointed to address chronic problems like lead paint, mold and lack of heat. When he wrapped his five-year term in 2024, the monitor, Bart Schwartz, noted that the overarching issue for residents remained the “poor physical state of NYCHA’s buildings.”In October, a massive brick chimney running 20 stories up the side of a housing authority apartment building in the Bronx collapsed after an explosion, sending tons of debris plummeting to the ground but amazingly not injuring anyone. Officials linked it to a natural gas boiler.

    A gas explosion sent fire racing through the top floors of a high-rise apartment building in New York City early Saturday, killing one person and injuring 14 others as temperatures plunged into the single digits overnight, authorities said.

    Firefighters responded shortly before 12:30 a.m. to the 17-story building in the Bronx, where people were seen leaning out of windows calling for help as flames engulfed parts of the top floors, officials said.

    Chief John Esposito said firefighters were investigating reports of a gas odor on the 15th and 16th floors when the explosion occurred. He said there was major structural damage to about a dozen apartments and fires in 10 apartments on the 16th and 17th floors.

    Authorities did not immediately release information on the person who died. Another person was critically injured, five had serious injuries and eight had minor injuries, officials said.

    Officials said the building had been undergoing renovations, and work on the natural gas system had been completed and inspected. The cause of the explosion was under investigation. The building was formerly run by the New York City Housing Authority, but it has been under private management since 2024, city officials said.

    FDNY via AP

    This image provided by FDNY shows FDNY members operating at a fire on the top two floors of a high-rise apartment in the Bronx, New York City, early Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026.

    “It’s an incredible tragedy. We’re sending all our thoughts to the families involved,” Leila Bozorg, deputy mayor for housing and planning, said at a morning news conference.

    Mayor Zohran Mamdani said all utilities in the building were shut down, and all 148 apartments vacated. Officials set up a reception center for the displaced residents at a nearby school, and the American Red Cross was there to help provide housing and other needs.

    “As you can imagine, this has been a deeply frightening and devastating morning for them,” Mamdani said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. “They are not alone. Our city will stand by them and do everything in our power to help them get back on their feet.”

    The Red Cross said it had registered more than 100 households and 305 people, including 89 children, for emergency aid by early Saturday afternoon.

    More than 200 fire and emergency crews worked the scene, according to the fire department. When the explosion occurred, some firefighters were trapped briefly in an elevator, officials said.

    “There were injuries. It was a very, very difficult night on a very cold night, which caused even more difficulty,” Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.

    Around half a million New Yorkers live in aging buildings run by the city’s housing authority, known as NYCHA, which is the largest in the nation.

    Many of the properties date back to the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. In 2019, a federal monitor was appointed to address chronic problems like lead paint, mold and lack of heat. When he wrapped his five-year term in 2024, the monitor, Bart Schwartz, noted that the overarching issue for residents remained the “poor physical state of NYCHA’s buildings.”

    In October, a massive brick chimney running 20 stories up the side of a housing authority apartment building in the Bronx collapsed after an explosion, sending tons of debris plummeting to the ground but amazingly not injuring anyone. Officials linked it to a natural gas boiler.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Police search for suspect in the shooting of an Indiana judge and his wife

    [ad_1]

    An Indiana state court judge and his wife were in stable condition Monday as authorities continued to search for suspects who shot the couple the day before at their Lafayette home.Steven Meyer, a Tippecanoe Superior Court judge, suffered an injury to his arm, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, had a hip injury from the attack, authorities said.Officers responded Sunday afternoon to a report of a shooting in the residential area about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis to find the couple injured. They were treated for their wounds, and officers recovered shell casings from the scene.Lafayette Police said the investigation remains active and involves local, state and federal agencies. They have not released a motive or suspect description.Mayor Tony Roswarski assured the community that every available resource was being used to apprehend the person or people responsible for what he called “this senseless, unacceptable act of violence.”Kimberly Meyer said in a statement Monday that she has “great confidence” in investigators and is grateful to the officers and medical professionals who helped her and her husband.The shooting had other Indiana judges worried for their safety, with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush urging them to “please remain vigilant in your own security.”“I worry about the safety of all our judges,” she wrote in a letter to the state’s judges. “As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable.”

    LAFAYETTE, Ind. —

    An Indiana state court judge and his wife were in stable condition Monday as authorities continued to search for suspects who shot the couple the day before at their Lafayette home.

    Steven Meyer, a Tippecanoe Superior Court judge, suffered an injury to his arm, and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, had a hip injury from the attack, authorities said.

    Officers responded Sunday afternoon to a report of a shooting in the residential area about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis to find the couple injured. They were treated for their wounds, and officers recovered shell casings from the scene.

    Lafayette Police said the investigation remains active and involves local, state and federal agencies. They have not released a motive or suspect description.

    Mayor Tony Roswarski assured the community that every available resource was being used to apprehend the person or people responsible for what he called “this senseless, unacceptable act of violence.”

    Kimberly Meyer said in a statement Monday that she has “great confidence” in investigators and is grateful to the officers and medical professionals who helped her and her husband.

    The shooting had other Indiana judges worried for their safety, with state Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush urging them to “please remain vigilant in your own security.”

    “I worry about the safety of all our judges,” she wrote in a letter to the state’s judges. “As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Suspect in triple homicide arrested in Osceola County, deputies say

    [ad_1]

    The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 29-year-old man after three adult males were found shot to death in a residential subdivision near Kissimmee on Saturday.Deputies responded to a shooting at 12:13 p.m. in the Indian Point Subdivision, where they found the three victims in front of a residence.Authorities quickly located and arrested Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, who has been booked into the Osceola County jail on three counts of murder.The sheriff’s office was still processing the scene and possibly speaking with witnesses late Saturday night about the events that unfolded shortly after noon. “There is no threat to the community, as a suspect of these horrific and senseless murders has been caught and arrested by Osceola County deputies,” Sheriff Christopher Blackmon said.A neighbor, Adam Andersen, expressed his concerns, saying, “It’s a little concerning. I have a daughter, thank God she’s not here. It’s concerning, especially that this individual was shot publicly in an open area like a gas station over a simple thing as an argument and was released. It’s scary but not surprising, you know.”In May 2021, Bojeh was involved in a shooting incident at a WAWA convenience store, where shots were fired into random cars, injuring one man who survived.Although Bojeh faced multiple charges, he was “acquitted by reason of insanity” when the case went to trial the following year.His criminal history includes mostly small, non-violent crimes and drug arrests in Osceola and Orange counties, with nothing indicating a motive for a triple murder.The sheriff’s office said the victims are from out of state, and they are working to notify their next of kin.>> This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.

    OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. —

    The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 29-year-old man after three adult males were found shot to death in a residential subdivision near Kissimmee on Saturday.

    Deputies responded to a shooting at 12:13 p.m. in the Indian Point Subdivision, where they found the three victims in front of a residence.

    Authorities quickly located and arrested Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, who has been booked into the Osceola County jail on three counts of murder.

    The sheriff’s office was still processing the scene and possibly speaking with witnesses late Saturday night about the events that unfolded shortly after noon.

    “There is no threat to the community, as a suspect of these horrific and senseless murders has been caught and arrested by Osceola County deputies,” Sheriff Christopher Blackmon said.

    A neighbor, Adam Andersen, expressed his concerns, saying, “It’s a little concerning. I have a daughter, thank God she’s not here. It’s concerning, especially that this individual was shot publicly in an open area like a gas station over a simple thing as an argument and was released. It’s scary but not surprising, you know.”

    In May 2021, Bojeh was involved in a shooting incident at a WAWA convenience store, where shots were fired into random cars, injuring one man who survived.

    Although Bojeh faced multiple charges, he was “acquitted by reason of insanity” when the case went to trial the following year.

    His criminal history includes mostly small, non-violent crimes and drug arrests in Osceola and Orange counties, with nothing indicating a motive for a triple murder.

    The sheriff’s office said the victims are from out of state, and they are working to notify their next of kin.

    >> This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Former South Korean president sentenced to 5 years in prison

    [ad_1]

    A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday on some charges related to his imposition of martial law.The verdict is the first against Yoon in the eight criminal trials over the decree he issued in late 2024 and other allegations.Video above: Former South Korean president arrives at Seoul courtThe most significant charge against him alleges that he led a rebellion in connection with his martial law enforcement and it carries a potential death penalty.The Seoul Central District Court in the case decided Friday sentenced him for other charges like his defiance of authorities’ attempts to detain him.Yoon hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when an independent counsel earlier demanded a 10-year prison term for Yoon over those charges, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.Yoon has been impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.Yoon maintains he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament which obstructed his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

    , Seoul —

    A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday on some charges related to his imposition of martial law.

    The verdict is the first against Yoon in the eight criminal trials over the decree he issued in late 2024 and other allegations.

    Video above: Former South Korean president arrives at Seoul court

    The most significant charge against him alleges that he led a rebellion in connection with his martial law enforcement and it carries a potential death penalty.

    The Seoul Central District Court in the case decided Friday sentenced him for other charges like his defiance of authorities’ attempts to detain him.

    Yoon hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when an independent counsel earlier demanded a 10-year prison term for Yoon over those charges, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.

    Yoon has been impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.

    Yoon maintains he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament which obstructed his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Ex-Navy SEAL planned to fire explosives at police at San Diego ‘No Kings’ rally

    [ad_1]

    A former Navy SEAL with neo-Nazi beliefs faces up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of transporting fireworks across state lines with the intent to injure law enforcement at a “No Kings” protest in San Diego, authorities said.

    FBI agents found messages on Gregory Vandenberg’s phone indicating he was upset with President Trump because he believed the U.S. government is controlled by Israel and the Jewish people, according to the Department of Justice.

    Vandenberg, 49, was planning on traveling from El Paso to San Diego to unleash harmful fireworks at a June 14 protest, prosecutors said.

    Inside his car agents found T-shirts with a neo-Nazi symbol printed on them, a flag for the militant group the Caucasian Front, an Al Qaeda flag and a Latin message saying “Judea must be destroyed,” among other paraphernalia displaying anti-Israel and extremist beliefs, prosecutors said.

    FBI agents said they found clothing in Gregory Vandenberg’s vehicle with anti-Israel slogans and neo-Nazi symbols.

    (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico)

    On June 12, Vandenberg stopped at a travel center near Lordsburg, N.M., and purchased six large mortar fireworks as well as 72 M-150 firecrackers, which are designed to sound like gunfire. He repeatedly expressed his desire to use the fireworks to harm law enforcement at upcoming protests in California and urged the store clerk to join him, prosecutors said.

    Vandenberg, who had no stable employment and lived in his car, told the clerk he had significant knowledge of explosives and prior special operations forces experience. He said he was not interested in the color or display of the fireworks, only in their explosive impact and ability to harm others. He even talked about the possibility of increasing their explosive impact by taping fireworks together.

    He wore a T-shirt with the word “Amalek” on the front, which he said he designed specifically to mean “destroyer of Jews.” In the Torah, Amalek refers to descendants of Esau who are known as the Israelites’ sworn enemy. His home screen on his phone displayed a picture of the Taliban flag, prosecutors said.

    A hat with the calligraphy of the Al Qaeda flag was among evidence.

    A hat with the calligraphy of the Al Qaeda flag was among evidence.

    (Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico)

    He declined to provide his ID and then became paranoid, asking whether the store intended to track him and falsely saying that he was not from America, authorities said. Employees, shaken by the encounter, wrote down his license plate and contacted the police.

    Federal agents tracked Vandenberg to Tucson, Ariz., where he was arrested on June 13 while sleeping in his car at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. He told agents he was traveling for work and visiting friends in Phoenix, despite being unemployed, prosecutors said.

    After a five-day jury trial and around three hours of deliberation, a jury convicted him of transportation of explosives with intent to kill, injure or intimidate and attempted transportation of prohibited fireworks into California. He remains in custody awaiting sentencing.

    Acting U.S. Atty. Ryan Ellison said in a statement that the verdict sends a message that attempts to use violence to express one’s political beliefs will be met with federal consequences.

    “People in this country are free to hold their own beliefs and to express them peacefully,” Ellison said. “What they are not free to do is use explosives to threaten or terrorize others. Vandenberg intended to turn explosives into a tool of intimidation.”

    [ad_2]

    Clara Harter

    Source link

  • SoCal love triangle murder suspect extradited after 8 years on the run in Mexico

    [ad_1]

    A man accused of ambushing and fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend has been extradited to Orange County to face a murder charge after eight years on the run in Mexico, authorities said.

    Humberto Rodriguez Martinez, 39, is accused of working with a friend to kill his romantic rival outside his ex-girlfriend’s apartment in 2017, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Martinez is a Mexican citizen and was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the killing, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors charged Martinez in 2017 with the murder of 32-year-old Daniel Reyes, as well as with felony enhancements for allegedly lying in wait and for using a knife. But for years police were unable to arrest him.

    Martinez’s car was recovered in San Diego, while he remained wanted on a $2-million warrant.

    His friend, Adan Zapot-Leyva, was arrested two days after the attack and later sentenced to 15 years to life after pleading guilty in 2023 to one felony count of second-degree murder.

    Mexican authorities, working with the U.S. Marshals Service, tracked down Martinez in 2024 in Mexico, where he was arrested at the request of the U.S.

    On Dec. 4, he was extradited to the U.S. and homicide detectives from the Anaheim Police Department took him into custody at Los Angeles International Airport. He pleaded not guilty to murder on Tuesday and is being held without bail.

    “This arrest does not undo the pain the victim’s family has endured, but it reinforces our commitment and promise to our community: We will never stop working until justice is served,” Anaheim Police Chief Manny Cid said in a statement.

    Prosecutors accuse Martinez of carrying out a deliberate, jealousy-driven murder plot.

    Martinez shared two children with his ex-girlfriend and they were co-parenting for several months after they broke up. On Oct. 17, 2017, Martinez and Zapot-Leyva went to the woman’s apartment to watch the children while she went to work, prosecutors said.

    She returned home around 8:30 p.m. and the men left the apartment. About 30 minutes later, her new boyfriend arrived, prosecutors said.

    Early the following morning, Anaheim police officers responded to the intersection of Santa Ana and Helena streets after witnesses reported seeing two men chasing Reyes and one of them stabbing him. Reyes died at the scene.

    Zapot-Leyva later told authorities that he and Martinez had watched the apartment for several hours because they knew that Reyes was inside, according to his 2023 plea agreement obtained by City News Service.

    The ex-girlfriend had called Zapot-Leyva to ask where he and Martinez were and, in a “deliberate trick,” Zapot-Leyva told her they had left the area hours ago, according to the plea agreement. The goal was to fool Reyes into thinking it was safe to exit the apartment.

    Once he did emerge, the men chased him down and attacked him, and Martinez stabbed him 10 times, Zapot-Leyva told authorities, according to the plea deal.

    Reyes begged them to stop, saying “please don’t … I have children,” according to the plea deal.

    “The pursuit of justice will never be derailed by time or distance,” O.C. Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a statement Friday. “We are grateful for the incredible work of our investigators and prosecutors and of our partners, both domestic and international, for their assistance in tracking down a wanted [murder suspect] and bringing him back to Orange County.”

    [ad_2]

    Clara Harter

    Source link

  • Two people shot by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, authorities say

    [ad_1]

    Two people were shot by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday.Video above: Portland City Council president gives statement on shootingA statement from the Department of Homeland Security says the shooting occurred as Border Patrol agents were conducting “a targeted vehicle stop.”DHS said it believed both the driver and the passenger had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but provided no evidence on why that was believed. The statement also said the passenger of the vehicle was involved in a recent shooting in Portland.”When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over law enforcement agents. Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene,” the statement says. A news release from Portland police says officers responded to the city’s Hazelwood neighborhood around 2:20 p.m. local time for a report of a shooting. Minutes later, Portland officers were notified that a man who had been shot was calling for help.”Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel,” Portland police officials said. Both people were transported to the hospital and their conditions are unknown. Portland police officials also said they determined that both people were injured in the shooting involving federal agents. Video below: FBI agents on scene after Customs and Border Patrol agents shoot two people in Portland, OregonThe shooting came after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday in Minneapolis.Protests followed the killing, which also set off a clash between federal officials who insist the shooting was an act of self-defense and Minneapolis officials who dispute that narrative.”We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Portland police Chief Bob Day said in the release. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”

    Two people were shot by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday.

    Video above: Portland City Council president gives statement on shooting

    A statement from the Department of Homeland Security says the shooting occurred as Border Patrol agents were conducting “a targeted vehicle stop.”

    DHS said it believed both the driver and the passenger had ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but provided no evidence on why that was believed. The statement also said the passenger of the vehicle was involved in a recent shooting in Portland.

    “When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over law enforcement agents. Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene,” the statement says.

    A news release from Portland police says officers responded to the city’s Hazelwood neighborhood around 2:20 p.m. local time for a report of a shooting.

    Minutes later, Portland officers were notified that a man who had been shot was calling for help.

    “Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel,” Portland police officials said.

    Both people were transported to the hospital and their conditions are unknown. Portland police officials also said they determined that both people were injured in the shooting involving federal agents.

    Video below: FBI agents on scene after Customs and Border Patrol agents shoot two people in Portland, Oregon

    The shooting came after 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday in Minneapolis.

    Protests followed the killing, which also set off a clash between federal officials who insist the shooting was an act of self-defense and Minneapolis officials who dispute that narrative.

    “We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Portland police Chief Bob Day said in the release. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”

    This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

    [ad_2]

    Source link