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Tag: father

  • Family mourns father killed in Elk Grove hit-and-run

    THIS IS KCRA THREE NEWS LIVE AT 11 P.M. A GOOD HEART. AND HE ALWAYS MEANT WELL FOR PEOPLE. AND HE DEFINITELY DID NOT DESERVE TO BE KILLED. TONIGHT, AN EMOTIONAL MESSAGE FROM THE FAMILY OF A MAN KILLED IN A HIT AND RUN IN ELK GROVE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TONIGHT. I’M CECIL HANNIBAL. POLICE SAY THE 61 YEAR OLD VICTIM WAS FIXING A FLAT TIRE WHEN HE WAS HIT. NOW HIS FAMILY WANTS TO KNOW WHY THAT DRIVER WAS RELEASED FROM JAIL. KCRA 3’S ANAHITA JAFARY EXPLAINS WHY THE FAMILY SAYS JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED. HE’S NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO WATCH ME GRADUATE OR GROW UP. SO IT’S JUST SAD TO DEAL WITH IT. 61 YEAR OLD DANIEL SANCHEZ WAS SIMPLY CHANGING A TIRE WHEN HIS LIFE WAS CUT SHORT. KNOWING THAT IT WAS A HIT AND RUN MADE IT THAT MUCH HARDER. DANIEL’S WIFE WAS WITH HIM AT THE TIME AND CALLED THE MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN TO TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED. SHE CALLED ME AND I ANSWERED, AND SHE WAS HYSTERICALLY CRYING, AND I JUST KNEW TELLING HER KIDS, SHE SAYS, WAS THE HARDEST PART. AS A MOM, WE TRY OUR HARDEST TO PROTECT OUR KIDS FROM ANYTHING THAT WOULD HURT THEM AND IT STILL HAPPENED. THEY STILL GOT HURT IN THAT MOMENT. IT WAS SURREAL IN A SENSE. THERE WAS. I ALMOST DIDN’T BELIEVE IT, BUT NOW, A FEW DAYS LATER, EVERYTHING IS STARTING TO SLOWLY SET IN. DANIEL’S SON, ANDRE SANCHEZ, IS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL. HE’S NOT GOING TO SEE THE MAN THAT I’M BECOMING IN THE FUTURE, AND THAT RESONATES WITH ME ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LEVEL. HE SAYS HIS UPCOMING GRADUATION IS ONE MILESTONE HE WISHES HIS FATHER COULD BE HERE FOR. I’LL BE ABLE TO SEE ALL MY PEERS, AND AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHETHER PEOPLE LIKE TO ADMIT IT OR NOT, THAT’S GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT I ENVY BECAUSE EVERYBODY ELSE IS GOING TO GET TO HAVE THEIR MOMENT WITH THEIR FAMILY. AND I’M NOT. OFFICIALS SAY SCHMIDT SINGH WAS ARRESTED AFTER DETECTIVES SEARCHED HIS HOME AND FOUND THE DODGE TRUCK IN HIS GARAGE, WITH EVIDENCE OF IT BEING INVOLVED IN THE CRASH WHILE HE TOOK ANOTHER MAN’S LIFE. AND HE’S WITH HIS FAMILY HAPPY. AND ALL OF OUR FAMILY IS GRIEVING. SINGH HAS SINCE BEEN RELEASED ON BAIL, LEAVING THE FAMILY QUESTIONING THE SYSTEM. I CAN’T IMAGINE THE TYPE OF LOSS YOU GUYS ARE GOING THROUGH AND WHAT THIS HAS DONE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. WHAT WOULD HELP THIS SITUATION FOR YOU ALL? I HOPE THAT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE D.A., AT THE VERY LEAST, PUTS HIM BACK IN JAIL, AND I HOPE THAT THEY FOLLOW THROUGH WITH PRESSING CHARGES. AND THEY GIVE MY BOY SOME TYPE OF CLOSURE AND SOME TYPE OF JUSTICE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR DAD. NOW THEY SHARE PHOTOS. WE’RE SO HAPPY TO BE A DAD. THE REASON I PLAYED FOOTBALL. REASON I PLAYED BASEBALL FOR AS LONG AS I DID IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY. HE DEFINITELY DI

    Family mourns father killed in Elk Grove hit-and-run

    A family is grieving the loss of Daniel Sanchez, who was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, as the suspect has been released on bail.

    Updated: 11:19 PM PST Feb 7, 2026

    Editorial Standards

    A family in Sacramento County is grieving and frustrated after Daniel Sanchez, 61, was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, and the suspect has been released on bail.Daniel’s son, 11-year-old Anthony Sanchez, expressed his sorrow, saying, “He’s not gonna be able to watch me like graduate or grow up, so it’s just sad to deal with it.” Angela Holguin, the mother of Daniel’s children, shared the difficulty of the situation, stating, “Knowing that it was a hit and run made it that much harder.” She recounted the moment she learned of the tragedy, saying, “She called me and I answered, and she was hysterically crying, and I just knew. So we cried on the phone together for about 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, but I had to pull it together, my kids are going to be waking up for school.”Holguin described the challenge of telling her children about their father’s death, saying, “As moms, we try our hardest to protect our kids from anything that would hurt them and it still happened; they still got hurt.”Daniel’s son, Andres Sanchez, a senior in high school, reflected on the loss, saying, “It was surreal in a sense. I almost didn’t believe it, but now, a few days later, everything is starting to slowly set in.”Andres expressed his sadness about his father missing important milestones, saying, “He’s not going to see the man that I’m becoming in the future, and that resonates with me on an entirely different level.” He added, “I’ll be able to see all my peers and at the end of the day, whether people like to admit it or not, that’s going to be something that I envy, because everybody else is going to get to have their moment with their family and I’m not.”Authorities arrested Kushmit Singh after detectives found the Dodge truck involved in the crash in his garage. Anthony Sanchez shared, “My grandma said to me to pray for him to get caught. I did. Three hours later, he actually got caught.” Despite the arrest, Singh has been released on bail, prompting Anthony to say, “He took another man’s life and he’s with his family happy and all of our family is grieving.”Angela Holguin expressed her hopes for justice, saying, “I hope that the police department and the DA, at the very least, put him back in jail and I hope that they follow through with pressing charges, and they give my boys some type of closure and some type of justice for what happened to their dad.” She shared memories of Daniel, saying, “He was so excited to be a dad,” while Andres added, “He’s the reason I played football, the reason I played baseball for as long as I did.”Holguin emphasized, “He definitely did not deserve to be killed,” and described Daniel as someone with “a good heart” who “always meant well for people.” Singh had his first court appearance yesterday and will be seen again on February 26 for further arraignment.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    A family in Sacramento County is grieving and frustrated after Daniel Sanchez, 61, was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, and the suspect has been released on bail.

    Daniel’s son, 11-year-old Anthony Sanchez, expressed his sorrow, saying, “He’s not gonna be able to watch me like graduate or grow up, so it’s just sad to deal with it.” Angela Holguin, the mother of Daniel’s children, shared the difficulty of the situation, stating, “Knowing that it was a hit and run made it that much harder.”

    She recounted the moment she learned of the tragedy, saying, “She [Daniel’s wife] called me and I answered, and she was hysterically crying, and I just knew. So we cried on the phone together for about 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, but I had to pull it together, my kids are going to be waking up for school.”

    Holguin described the challenge of telling her children about their father’s death, saying, “As moms, we try our hardest to protect our kids from anything that would hurt them and it still happened; they still got hurt.”

    Daniel’s son, Andres Sanchez, a senior in high school, reflected on the loss, saying, “It was surreal in a sense. I almost didn’t believe it, but now, a few days later, everything is starting to slowly set in.”

    Andres expressed his sadness about his father missing important milestones, saying, “He’s not going to see the man that I’m becoming in the future, and that resonates with me on an entirely different level.”

    He added, “I’ll be able to see all my peers [at graduation] and at the end of the day, whether people like to admit it or not, that’s going to be something that I envy, because everybody else is going to get to have their moment with their family and I’m not.”

    Authorities arrested Kushmit Singh after detectives found the Dodge truck involved in the crash in his garage. Anthony Sanchez shared, “My grandma said to me to pray for him to get caught. I did. Three hours later, he actually got caught.” Despite the arrest, Singh has been released on bail, prompting Anthony to say, “He took another man’s life and he’s with his family happy and all of our family is grieving.”

    Angela Holguin expressed her hopes for justice, saying, “I hope that the police department and the DA, at the very least, put him back in jail and I hope that they follow through with pressing charges, and they give my boys some type of closure and some type of justice for what happened to their dad.”

    She shared memories of Daniel, saying, “He was so excited to be a dad,” while Andres added, “He’s the reason I played football, the reason I played baseball for as long as I did.”

    Holguin emphasized, “He definitely did not deserve to be killed,” and described Daniel as someone with “a good heart” who “always meant well for people.” Singh had his first court appearance yesterday and will be seen again on February 26 for further arraignment.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, dies at 80

    Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan and a conservative commentator, has died. He was 80.Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced his death in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, calling him “a steadfast guardian of his father’s legacy.”“Michael Reagan lived a life shaped by conviction, purpose, and an abiding devotion to President Reagan’s ideals,” the foundation said.His cause of death was not immediately announced.Reagan was a contributor to the conservative Newsmax television network and was known for his talk radio program, “The Michael Reagan Show.”Reagan was born to Irene Flaugher in 1945 and adopted just hours after his birth by Ronald Reagan and his then-wife, actor Jane Wyman.The young Reagan followed in his parents’ footsteps.After attending Arizona State University and Los Angeles Valley College, Reagan took up acting, built his syndicated radio show and authored several books, including two about his personal journey titled “On the Outside Looking in” and “Twice Adopted.”Throughout his life, Reagan also focused his time on several charities, raising money in powerboat racing and serving as chair of the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation board for three years.Ronald Reagan, who was known for trying to scale back government and devoting his presidency to winning the Cold War, died in 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Michael Reagan pushed his father’s ideas forward as chair of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.Michael Reagan’s second marriage was to Colleen Stearns, with whom he had two children.

    Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan and a conservative commentator, has died. He was 80.

    Video above: Remembering those we lost in 2025

    The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute announced his death in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, calling him “a steadfast guardian of his father’s legacy.”

    “Michael Reagan lived a life shaped by conviction, purpose, and an abiding devotion to President Reagan’s ideals,” the foundation said.

    His cause of death was not immediately announced.

    Reagan was a contributor to the conservative Newsmax television network and was known for his talk radio program, “The Michael Reagan Show.”

    Reagan was born to Irene Flaugher in 1945 and adopted just hours after his birth by Ronald Reagan and his then-wife, actor Jane Wyman.

    The young Reagan followed in his parents’ footsteps.

    After attending Arizona State University and Los Angeles Valley College, Reagan took up acting, built his syndicated radio show and authored several books, including two about his personal journey titled “On the Outside Looking in” and “Twice Adopted.”

    Throughout his life, Reagan also focused his time on several charities, raising money in powerboat racing and serving as chair of the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation board for three years.

    Ronald Reagan, who was known for trying to scale back government and devoting his presidency to winning the Cold War, died in 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Michael Reagan pushed his father’s ideas forward as chair of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.

    Michael Reagan’s second marriage was to Colleen Stearns, with whom he had two children.

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  • Lucky 13: Teenager celebrates unique birthday on New Year’s Day

    IT’S NOT JUST THE START OF THE NEW YEAR FOR ONE LOCAL TEEN, IT’S A MILESTONE YEAR FOR HER. SHE WAS BORN JANUARY 1ST, 2013, TURNING 13 YEARS OLD TODAY. WDSU ANCHOR RANDI RANDI SHOWS US HOW SHE AND HER FAMILY ARE MARKING THE OCCASION. 13 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON! WHAT’S TYPICALLY DUBBED A SUPERSTITIOUS NUMBER IS A LUCKY ONE FOR MADISON AND HER FAMILY. SHE CAME ON AT 1:13 A.M. JANUARY 1ST, 2013 ONE 113 AT 1:13 A.M. 13 YEARS AGO, A RARE BIRTHDAY, THIS NOW 13 YEAR OLD IS CELEBRATING AFTER COMING INTO THE WORLD IN A UNIQUE WAY. A MOTHER’S WATER BROKE AT A LAUNDRY MAT. WE WERE GETTING READY. WE WERE IN THE PROCESS OF BUILDING A NEW HOME. SO IN THE PROCESS OF THAT, I WANTED TO GET ALL OF THE CLOTHES WASHED BEFORE SHE CAME, BUT IF SHE HAD OTHER PLANS, MADISON WAS THE NEW YEAR’S BABY AT NORTH OAKS MEDICAL CENTER THAT YEAR. I CAN REMEMBER AT THE HOSPITAL WITH A CAMERA CREWS, THE HOSPITAL STAFF WANTING TO SEE HER. SHE KNOWS SHE’S THE NEW YEAR’S BABY AND SHE WEARS IT WELL. AND AS THE CHAMP COOPER CHEERLEADER NOW PREPARES FOR HIGH SCHOOL, SHE HAS PLANS OF BECOMING A DERMATOLOGIST, HOPING TO HELP OTHERS BUILD SIMILAR SELF-CONFIDENCE. SOME PEOPLE DON’T FEEL LIKE THEY’RE THE PRETTIEST IN ALL THAT KIND OF STUFF, BUT I TRY TO BUILD PEOPLE UP SO THEY CAN FEEL LIKE THEY ARE SOMETHING. AND FOR HER PARENTS, THIS NEWFOUND TEENAGER IS CERTAINLY MAKING THEM PROUD. SHE’S JUST A BRIGHT STAR, YOU KNOW, JUST TO TO SEE HER BLOSSOM INTO THE YOUNG LADY SHE’S BECOME NOW. IT’S JUST I’M JUST GLAD TO BE A PART OF IT. I’M HONORED TO BE HER MOTHER. I REALLY AM RANDI RANDI WDSU NEWS. LOVE ME SOME. MADISON. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. LISTEN, A FUN FACT JANUARY IS A POPULAR BIRTHDAY MONTH FOR THE GUYS WITH MADISON’S DAD AND SIST

    Lucky 13: Teenager celebrates unique birthday on New Year’s Day

    Updated: 7:49 PM PST Jan 1, 2026

    Editorial Standards

    A Louisiana teenager celebrated a unique birthday on New Year’s Day. Madyson Guillard, born on Jan. 1, 2013, at 1:13 a.m., celebrates her 13th birthday, marking a special milestone for her and her family.Madyson’s father recalled the unconventional circumstances of her birth.”She came on out at 1:13 a.m. January 1st, 2013,” said Perry Guillard, Madyson’s father. Her mother’s water broke in a laundromat as they were preparing for the arrival of their new home. “We were getting ready. We purchased it. We were in the process of building a new home. So in the process of that, I wanted to get all of the clothes washed before she came. But she had other plans,” said Gabby Guillard, Madyson’s mom. Madyson was the New Year’s baby at North Oaks that year, and her mother remembers the excitement at the hospital. “I can remember at the hospital with camera crews, the hospital staff wanting to see her,” Gabby said. “She knows she’s the New Year’s baby, and she wears it well,” said Perry. As a Champ Cooper cheerleader, Madyson is preparing for high school with aspirations of becoming a dermatologist. She hopes to help others build self-confidence, saying, “Some people don’t feel like they’re the prettiest, you know, that kind of stuff. But I try to build people up so they can feel like they are something.”Her parents are proud of their newfound teenager. “She’s just a bright star, you know, just to see her blossom into the young lady she’s become now, it’s, I’m just glad to be a part of it. I’m honored to be her mother. I really am,” Gabby said.

    A Louisiana teenager celebrated a unique birthday on New Year’s Day.

    Madyson Guillard, born on Jan. 1, 2013, at 1:13 a.m., celebrates her 13th birthday, marking a special milestone for her and her family.

    Madyson’s father recalled the unconventional circumstances of her birth.

    “She came on out at 1:13 a.m. January 1st, 2013,” said Perry Guillard, Madyson’s father.

    Her mother’s water broke in a laundromat as they were preparing for the arrival of their new home.

    “We were getting ready. We purchased it. We were in the process of building a new home. So in the process of that, I wanted to get all of the clothes washed before she came. But she had other plans,” said Gabby Guillard, Madyson’s mom.

    Madyson was the New Year’s baby at North Oaks that year, and her mother remembers the excitement at the hospital.

    “I can remember at the hospital with camera crews, the hospital staff wanting to see her,” Gabby said.

    “She knows she’s the New Year’s baby, and she wears it well,” said Perry.

    As a Champ Cooper cheerleader, Madyson is preparing for high school with aspirations of becoming a dermatologist. She hopes to help others build self-confidence, saying, “Some people don’t feel like they’re the prettiest, you know, that kind of stuff. But I try to build people up so they can feel like they are something.”

    Her parents are proud of their newfound teenager.

    “She’s just a bright star, you know, just to see her blossom into the young lady she’s become now, it’s, I’m just glad to be a part of it. I’m honored to be her mother. I really am,” Gabby said.

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  • Search underway for missing 5-year-old in Alabama who is believed to be in danger

    A search is underway in Alabama for a missing child who authorities believe is in danger.> > WATCH VIDEO OF THE SEARCH SCENE HERE:The Walker County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public to stop searching for a missing 5-year-old believed to be in danger because of explosives and booby traps found on the property in the area.Johnathan Everett Boley, 5, was last seen about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 7000 block of Highway 195 in Jasper. He was originally reported to be four years old, but the sheriff updated his age to five.Sheriff Nick Smith said the boy was living with his father, who reported him missing at about 1 p.m. The mother moved to Florida one year ago and the father is given five days each year for visitation. The child went missing during visitation, according to the sheriff.The boy weighs 50 pounds, has blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a yellow Mickey Mouse shirt, black pants and “Paw Patrol” shoes, authorities said.Johnathan may be with the black Labrador Retriever seen in this photo. That dog is also missing.Explosives foundHis father was taken into custody after explosive devices were found on the property.Deputies were planning to execute a search warrant at the father’s home on Wednesday, but called off that search after finding what they called “unusual explosive devices” on the property.Authorities released photos of the explosives, described as pipe bombs, found on the property.The father is former military and neighbors said they have heard explosions for weeks.There was one reported Wednesday, but officials cannot confirm if that is connected to the missing child.The FBI explosives team is on the scene.The searchOfficials are still continuing the search. Agencies have been using drones and tracking dogs to search for the 5-year-old boy. A helicopter from Montgomery is also being used.Divers were brought in on Thursday to search some ponds around the house.The sheriff asked anyone with a doorbell camera or game camera to check their video to see if the child is on it.Anyone with information is asked to contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at 205-384-7218 or call 911.

    A search is underway in Alabama for a missing child who authorities believe is in danger.

    > > WATCH VIDEO OF THE SEARCH SCENE HERE:

    The Walker County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public to stop searching for a missing 5-year-old believed to be in danger because of explosives and booby traps found on the property in the area.

    Johnathan Everett Boley, 5, was last seen about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 7000 block of Highway 195 in Jasper. He was originally reported to be four years old, but the sheriff updated his age to five.

    Sheriff Nick Smith said the boy was living with his father, who reported him missing at about 1 p.m. The mother moved to Florida one year ago and the father is given five days each year for visitation. The child went missing during visitation, according to the sheriff.

    The boy weighs 50 pounds, has blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a yellow Mickey Mouse shirt, black pants and “Paw Patrol” shoes, authorities said.

    Johnathan may be with the black Labrador Retriever seen in this photo. That dog is also missing.

    Walker County Sheriff’s Office

    Explosives found

    His father was taken into custody after explosive devices were found on the property.

    Deputies were planning to execute a search warrant at the father’s home on Wednesday, but called off that search after finding what they called “unusual explosive devices” on the property.

    Authorities released photos of the explosives, described as pipe bombs, found on the property.

    The father is former military and neighbors said they have heard explosions for weeks.

    There was one reported Wednesday, but officials cannot confirm if that is connected to the missing child.

    The FBI explosives team is on the scene.

    Officials are still continuing the search. Agencies have been using drones and tracking dogs to search for the 5-year-old boy. A helicopter from Montgomery is also being used.

    Divers were brought in on Thursday to search some ponds around the house.

    The sheriff asked anyone with a doorbell camera or game camera to check their video to see if the child is on it.

    Anyone with information is asked to contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at 205-384-7218 or call 911.

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  • Brigitte Bardot, 1960s film icon turned animal rights activist, dies at 91

    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.”Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency. In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.” Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.”It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.”I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.”It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.” She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.”It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.”I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.” Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.

    Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

    Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.

    At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.

    Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.

    ‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.

    Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.

    “Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

    Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.

    Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.

    She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.

    Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”

    In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency.

    In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.

    She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.”

    Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.

    Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.

    But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.

    The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.

    The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.

    “It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”

    Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.

    Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.

    Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.

    “I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”

    In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”

    Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.

    Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).

    With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.

    “It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”

    Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.”

    She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.

    Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.

    She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.

    By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.

    “It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.

    In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.

    Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”

    “Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”

    Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.

    “I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”

    Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • Brigitte Bardot, 1960s film icon turned animal rights activist, dies at 91

    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.”Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor. Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency. In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.” Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.”It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.”I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.”It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.” She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.”It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”“Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.”I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.” Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

    Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later an animal rights activist, has died. She was 91.

    Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals, told The Associated Press that she died Sunday at her home in southern France, and would not provide a cause of death. He said no arrangements have yet been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

    Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by her then-husband, Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.

    At the height of a cinema career that spanned some 28 films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blonde hair, figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars.

    Such was her widespread appeal that in 1969 her features were chosen to be the model for “Marianne,” the national emblem of France and the official Gallic seal. Bardot’s face appeared on statues, postage stamps and even on coins.

    ‘’We are mourning a legend,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Sunday on X.

    Bardot’s second career as an animal rights activist was equally sensational. She traveled to the Arctic to blow the whistle on the slaughter of baby seals; she condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments; and she opposed sending monkeys into space.

    “Man is an insatiable predator,” Bardot told The Associated Press on her 73rd birthday, in 2007. “I don’t care about my past glory. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself.”

    Her activism earned her compatriots’ respect and, in 1985, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, the nation’s highest honor.

    Later, however, she fell from public grace as her far-right political views sounded racist, as she frequently decried the influx of immigrants into France, especially Muslims.

    She was convicted five times in French courts of inciting racial hatred. Notably, she criticized the Muslim practice of slaughtering sheep during annual religious holidays like Eid al-Adha.

    Bardot’s 1992 marriage to fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, a onetime adviser to former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, contributed to her political shift. She described the outspoken nationalist as a “lovely, intelligent man.”

    In 2012, she caused controversy again when she wrote a letter in support of Marine Le Pen, the current leader of the party — now renamed National Rally — in her failed bid for the French presidency.

    In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Bardot said in an interview that most actors protesting sexual harassment in the film industry were “hypocritical” and “ridiculous” because many played “the teases” with producers to land parts.

    She said she had never been a victim of sexual harassment and found it “charming to be told that I was beautiful or that I had a nice little ass.”

    Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born Sept. 28, 1934, to a wealthy industrialist. A shy, secretive child, she studied classical ballet and was discovered by a family friend who put her on the cover of Elle magazine at age 14.

    Bardot once described her childhood as “difficult” and said her father was a strict disciplinarian.

    But it was French movie producer Vadim, whom she married in 1952, who saw her potential and wrote “And God Created Woman” to showcase provocative sensuality.

    The film, which portrayed Bardot as a bored newlywed who beds her brother-in-law, had a decisive influence on New Wave directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and came to embody the hedonism and sexual freedom of the 1960s.

    The film was a box-office hit, and it made Bardot a superstar. Her girlish pout, tiny waist and shape were often more appreciated than her talent.

    “It’s an embarrassment to have acted so badly,” Bardot said of her early films. “I suffered a lot in the beginning. I was really treated like someone less than nothing.”

    Bardot’s unabashed, off-screen love affair with co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant further shocked the nation. It eradicated the boundaries between her public and private life and turned her into a hot prize for paparazzi.

    Bardot never adjusted to the limelight. She blamed the constant press attention for the suicide attempt that followed 10 months after the birth of her only child, Nicolas. Photographers had broken into her house only two weeks before she gave birth to snap a picture of her pregnant.

    Nicolas’ father was Jacques Charrier, a handsome French actor whom she married in 1959 but who never felt comfortable in his role as Monsieur Bardot. Bardot soon gave up her son to his father, and later said she had been chronically depressed and unready for the duties of being a mother.

    “I was looking for roots then,” she said in an interview. “I had none to offer.”

    In her 1996 autobiography “Initiales B.B.,” she likened her pregnancy to “a tumor growing inside me,” and described Charrier as “temperamental and abusive.”

    Bardot married her third husband, West German millionaire playboy Gunther Sachs, in 1966, but the relationship ended in divorce three years later.

    Among her films were “A Parisian” (1957); “In Case of Misfortune,” in which she starred in 1958 with screen legend Jean Gabin; “The Truth” (1960); “Private Life” (1962); “A Ravishing Idiot” (1964); “Shalako” (1968); “Women” (1969); “The Bear and the Doll” (1970); “Rum Boulevard” (1971); and “Don Juan” (1973).

    With the exception of 1963’s critically acclaimed “Contempt,” directed by Godard, Bardot’s films were rarely complicated by plots. Often they were vehicles to display Bardot’s curves and legs in scanty dresses or frolicking nude in the sun.

    “It was never a great passion of mine,” she said of filmmaking. “And it can be deadly sometimes. Marilyn (Monroe) perished because of it.”

    Bardot retired to her Riviera villa in St. Tropez at the age of 39 in 1973 after “The Woman Grabber.”

    She emerged a decade later with a new persona: An animal rights lobbyist. She abandoned her jet-set life and sold off movie memorabilia and jewelry to create a foundation devoted to the prevention of animal cruelty.

    Her activism knew no borders. She urged South Korea to ban the sale of dog meat and once wrote to U.S. President Bill Clinton asking why the U.S. Navy recaptured two dolphins it had released into the wild.

    She attacked centuries-old French and Italian sporting traditions including the Palio, a free-for-all horse race, and campaigned on behalf of wolves, rabbits, kittens and turtle doves.

    By the late 1990s, Bardot was making headlines that would lose her many fans. She was convicted and fined five times between 1997 and 2008 for inciting racial hatred in incidents inspired by her anger at Muslim animal slaughtering rituals.

    “It’s true that sometimes I get carried away, but when I see how slowly things move forward … and despite all the promises that have been made to me by all different governments put together — my distress takes over,” Bardot told the AP.

    In 1997, several towns removed Bardot-inspired statues of Marianne — the bare-breasted statue representing the French Republic — after the actress voiced anti-immigrant sentiment. Also that year, she received death threats after calling for a ban on the sale of horse meat.

    Environmental campaigner Paul Watson, who was beaten on a seal hunt protest in Canada alongside Bardot in 1977 and campaigned with her for five decades, acknowledged that “many disagreed with Brigitte’s politics or some of her views.”

    “Her allegiance was not to the world of humans,” he said. “The animals of this world lost a wonderful friend today.”

    Bardot once said that she identified with the animals that she was trying to save.

    “I can understand hunted animals because of the way I was treated,” Bardot said. “What happened to me was inhuman. I was constantly surrounded by the world press.”

    Ganley contributed to this story before her retirement. Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • ‘3 days before Christmas’: Florida man shoots wife, daughter, then himself, deputies say

    Just three days before Christmas, a man shot and killed his wife, shot his 13-year-old stepdaughter and then shot and killed himself, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.PCSO is investigating the incident as a murder-suicide.Deputies responded to a home on Lemon Avenue in the Highland City area of Lakeland after receiving a 911 call around 11 p.m. The caller said her 12-year-old neighbor ran to her house and asked her to call 911 because his stepfather and mother were fighting, according to deputies. He told the woman his mom, Crystal, asked him to call 911 as the argument was escalating, PCSO said. Deputies arrived minutes later and said they located Crystal with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead on the scene. PCSO also located a 13-year-old girl, the victim’s daughter, in her bedroom with two gunshot wounds. She was taken to the hospital, where she is in critical but stable condition. Deputies also found their 1-year-old daughter asleep in her crib, unharmed.Investigators determined 47-year-old Jason Kenney was in his shed when he decided to go back inside the house to watch the end of an NFL game in the living room, where his wife was. Crystal told him that she didn’t want to watch football, and an argument ensued, PCSO said.Deputies said she then shouted to her son, asking him to call 911, which is when he ran from the house and said he heard a single shot go off.Kenney fled the scene in his truck after shooting his wife. He called his sister, who is not in Florida, and told her he had done something bad, and he was not going to jail.Kenney told his sister she would “see it on the news.”After deputies found Kenney at his father’s home in Lake Wales, they told him to come outside. That’s when they heard a single gunshot, PCSO said.PCSO entered the shed on his father’s property to find Kenney had shot himself in the head. Kenney was pronounced dead at the scene. “Three days before Christmas, this man shot and killed his wife, shot his stepdaughter, and then shot and killed himself. This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific. We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.The 13-year-old remains in critical condition, and the other two children are with their grandparents.

    Just three days before Christmas, a man shot and killed his wife, shot his 13-year-old stepdaughter and then shot and killed himself, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

    PCSO is investigating the incident as a murder-suicide.

    Deputies responded to a home on Lemon Avenue in the Highland City area of Lakeland after receiving a 911 call around 11 p.m.

    The caller said her 12-year-old neighbor ran to her house and asked her to call 911 because his stepfather and mother were fighting, according to deputies.

    He told the woman his mom, Crystal, asked him to call 911 as the argument was escalating, PCSO said.

    Deputies arrived minutes later and said they located Crystal with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

    PCSO also located a 13-year-old girl, the victim’s daughter, in her bedroom with two gunshot wounds. She was taken to the hospital, where she is in critical but stable condition.

    Deputies also found their 1-year-old daughter asleep in her crib, unharmed.

    Investigators determined 47-year-old Jason Kenney was in his shed when he decided to go back inside the house to watch the end of an NFL game in the living room, where his wife was.

    Crystal told him that she didn’t want to watch football, and an argument ensued, PCSO said.

    Deputies said she then shouted to her son, asking him to call 911, which is when he ran from the house and said he heard a single shot go off.

    Kenney fled the scene in his truck after shooting his wife. He called his sister, who is not in Florida, and told her he had done something bad, and he was not going to jail.

    Kenney told his sister she would “see it on the news.”

    After deputies found Kenney at his father’s home in Lake Wales, they told him to come outside. That’s when they heard a single gunshot, PCSO said.

    PCSO entered the shed on his father’s property to find Kenney had shot himself in the head. Kenney was pronounced dead at the scene.

    “Three days before Christmas, this man shot and killed his wife, shot his stepdaughter, and then shot and killed himself. This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific. We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

    The 13-year-old remains in critical condition, and the other two children are with their grandparents.

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  • Families reeling, businesses suffering six months after ICE raided Ventura cannabis farms

    A father who has become the sole caretaker for his two young children after his wife was deported. A school district seeing absenteeism similar to what it experienced during the pandemic. Businesses struggling because customers are scared to go outside.

    These are just a sampling of how this part of Ventura County is reckoning with the aftermath of federal immigration raids on Glass House cannabis farms six months ago, when hundreds of workers were detained and families split apart. In some instances, there is still uncertainty about what happened to minors left behind after one or both parents were deported. Now, while Latino households gather for the holidays, businesses and restaurants are largely quiet as anxiety about more Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids lingers.

    “There’s a lot of fear that the community is living,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center. This time of year, clients usually ask her about her holiday plans, but now no one asks. Families are divided by the U.S. border or have loved ones in immigration detainment. “They were ready for Christmas, to make tamales, to make pozole, to make something and celebrate with the family. And now, nothing.”

    At the time, the immigration raids on Glass House Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria were some of the largest of their kind nationwide, resulting in chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. At least 361 undocumented immigrants were detained, many of them third-party contractors for Glass House. One of those contractors, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell from a greenhouse rooftop in the July 10 raid.

    Jacqueline Rodriguez, in mirror, works on a customer’s hair as Silvia Lopez, left, owner of Divine Hair Design, waits for customers in downtown Oxnard on Dec. 19, 2025.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    The raids catalyzed mass protests along the Central Coast and sent a chill through Oxnard, a tight-knit community where many families work in the surrounding fields and live in multigenerational homes far more modest than many on the Ventura coast. It also reignited fears about how farmworker communities — often among the most low-paid and vulnerable parts of the labor pool — would be targeted during the Trump administration’s intense deportation campaign.

    In California, undocumented workers represent nearly 60% of the agricultural workforce, and many of them live in mixed-immigration-status households or households where none are citizens, said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. After the Glass House raid, Padilla and UC Merced associate professor Edward Flores identified economic trends similar to the Great Recession, when private-sector jobs fell. Although undocumented workers contribute to state and federal taxes, they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits that could lessen the blow of job loss after a family member gets detained.

    “These are households that have been more affected by the economic consequences than any other group,” Padilla said. She added that California should consider distributing “replacement funds” for workers and families that have lost income because of immigration enforcement activity.

    A woman stands in a front of a window near quinceanera dresses

    An Oxnard store owner who sells quinceañera and baptism dresses — and who asked that her name not be used — says she has lost 60% of her business since the immigrant raids this year at Glass House farms.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    Local businesses are feeling the effects as well. Silvia Lopez, who has run Divine Hair Design in downtown Oxnard for 16 years, said she’s lost as much as 75% of business after the July raid. The salon usually saw 40 clients a day, she said, but on the day after the raid, it had only two clients — and four stylists who were stunned. Already, she said, other salon owners have had to close, and she cut back her own hours to help her remaining stylists make enough each month.

    “Everything changed for everyone,” she said.

    In another part of town, a store owner who sells quinceañera and baptism dresses said her sales have dropped by 60% every month since August, and clients have postponed shopping. A car shop owner, who declined to be identified because he fears government retribution, said he supported President Trump because of his campaign pledge to help small-business owners like himself. But federal loans have been difficult to access, he said, and he feels betrayed by the president’s deportation campaign that has targeted communities such as Oxnard.

    A woman poses for a portrait.

    “There’s a lot of fear that the community is living,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center in downtown Oxnard, on Dec. 19, 2025.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    “Glass House had a big impact,” he said. “It made people realize, ‘Oh s—, they’re hitting us hard.’ ”

    The raid’s domino effect has raised concerns about the welfare of children in affected households. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental effects on young children, according to the American Immigration Council, and they can be at risk of experiencing severe psychological distress.

    Olivia Lopez, a community organizer at Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, highlighted the predicament of one father. He became the sole caretaker of his infant and 4-year-old son after his wife was deported, and can’t afford child care. He is considering sending the children across the border to his wife in Mexico, who misses her kids.

    In a separate situation, Lopez said, an 18-year-old has been suddenly thrust into caring for two siblings after her mother, a single parent, was deported.

    Additionally, she said she has heard stories of children left behind, including a 16-year-old who does not want to leave the U.S. and reunite with her mother who was deported after the Glass House raid. She said she suspects that at least 50 families — and as many as 100 children — lost both or their only parent in the raid.

    “I have questions after hearing all the stories: Where are the children, in cases where two parents, those responsible for the children, were deported? Where are those children?” she said. “How did we get to this point?”

    Robin Godfrey, public information officer for the Ventura County Human Services Agency, which is responsible for overseeing child welfare in the county, said she could not answer specific questions about whether the agency has become aware of minors left behind after parents were detained.

    “Federal and state laws prevent us from confirming or denying if children from Glass House Farms families came into the child welfare system,” she said in a statement.

    The raid has been jarring in the Oxnard School District, which was closed for summer vacation but reopened on July 10 to contact families and ensure their well-being, Supt. Ana DeGenna said. Her staff called all 13,000 families in the district to ask whether they needed resources and whether they wanted access to virtual classes for the upcoming school year.

    Even before the July 10 raid, DeGenna and her staff were preparing. In January, after Trump was inaugurated, the district sped up installing doorbells at every school site in case immigration agents attempted to enter. They referred families to organizations that would help them draft affidavits so their U.S.-born children could have legal guardians, in case the parents were deported. They asked parents to submit not just one or two, but as many as 10 emergency contacts in case they don’t show up to pick up their children.

    A man with a guitar.

    Rodrigo is considering moving back to Mexico after living in the U.S. for 42 years.

    (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

    With a district that is 92% Latino, she said, nearly everyone is fearful, whether they are directly or indirectly affected, regardless if they have citizenship. Some families have self-deported, leaving the country, while children have changed households to continue their schooling. Nearly every morning, as raids continue in the region, she fields calls about sightings of ICE vehicles near schools. When that happens, she said, she knows attendance will be depressed to near COVID-19 levels for those surrounding schools, with parents afraid to send their children back to the classroom.

    But unlike the pandemic, there is no relief in knowing they’ve experienced the worst, such as the Glass House raid, which saw hundreds of families affected in just a day, she said. The need for mental health counselors and support has only grown.

    “We have to be there to protect them and take care of them, but we have to acknowledge it’s a reality they’re living through,” she said. “We can’t stop the learning, we can’t stop the education, because we also know that is the most important thing that’s going to help them in the future to potentially avoid being victimized in any way.”

    Jasmine Cruz, 21, launched a GoFundMe page after her father was taken during the Glass House raid. He remains in detention in Arizona, and the family hired an immigration attorney in hopes of getting him released.

    Each month, she said, it gets harder to pay off their rent and utility bills. She managed to raise about $2,700 through GoFundMe, which didn’t fully cover a month of rent. Her mother is considering moving the family back to Mexico if her father is deported, Cruz said.

    “I tried telling my mom we should stay here,” she said. “But she said it’s too much for us without our dad.”

    Many of the families torn apart by the Glass House raid did not have plans in place, said Lopez, the community organizer, and some families were resistant because they believed they wouldn’t be affected. But after the raid, she received calls from several families who wanted to know whether they could get family affidavit forms notarized. One notary, she said, spent 10 hours working with families for free, including some former Glass House workers who evaded the raid.

    “The way I always explain it is, look, everything that is being done by this government agency, you can’t control,” she said. “But what you can control is having peace of mind knowing you did something to protect your children and you didn’t leave them unprotected.”

    For many undocumented immigrants, the choices are few.

    Rodrigo, who is undocumented and worries about ICE reprisals, has made his living with his guitar, which he has been playing since he was 17.

    While taking a break outside a downtown Oxnard restaurant, he looked tired, wiping his forehead after serenading a pair, a couple and a group at a Mexican restaurant. He has been in the U.S. for 42 years, but since the summer raid, business has been slow. Now, people no longer want to hire for house parties.

    The 77-year-old said he wants to retire but has to continue working. But he fears getting picked up at random, based on how abusive agents have been. He’s thinking about the new year, and returning to Mexico on his own accord.

    “Before they take away my guitar,” he said, “I better go.”

    Melissa Gomez

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  • Edgewater police looking for woman accused of abducting two children

    Woman accused of abducting 2 children arrested in Seminole County

    BREAKING NEWS. THAT BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT. EDGEWATER POLICE NEED YOUR HELP FINDING A MOTHER ACCUSED OF ABDUCTING HER TWO CHILDREN. INVESTIGATORS SAY SHE TOOK THE KIDS FROM THEIR FATHER. THE CHILDREN WERE TAKEN FROM A GAS STATION ON INDIAN RIVER BOULEVARD, JUST WEST OF ROUTE ONE. AND THAT’S WHERE WESH 2’S JAVON JONES IS TONIGHT. SO, DAVID, POLICE SAY THIS WOMAN SHOULDN’T HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH HER CHILDREN. NANCY. THAT’S RIGHT. WE’RE AT THE 600 BLOCK IN THE AREA OF THE 600 BLOCK OF WEST INDIAN RIVER BOULEVARD. AGAIN, JUST AS YOU SAID, A LITTLE BIT DOWN FROM US ONE. THIS IS WHERE THEY SAY THAT MOM, WHO APPARENTLY HAD AN ACTIVE WARRANT AND WAS ORDERED NOT TO HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH HER CHILDREN, FOLLOWED THE CHILDREN’S FATHER TO A GAS STATION, WAITED UNTIL HE WENT INSIDE. AND THAT’S WHEN OFFICERS SAY SHE TOOK HER SEVEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER AND FIVE YEAR OLD SON FROM THE CAR. THEY RELEASED THIS PHOTO OF EMILY SAINT CLAIR ASKING ANYONE IN THE PUBLIC WHO SEES HER TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE EDGEWATER POLICE DEPARTMENT. POLICE SAY SHE HAS AN ACTIVE WARRANT FOR DRUG POSSESSION, AND THAT DCF HAD PROHIBITED CONTACT WITH HER CHILDREN. SHE’S EXPECTED TO BE TRAVELING WITH HER DAUGHTER AND SON, ABEL. EDGEWATER POLICE ALSO RELEASING THESE IMAGES OF THE TWO, SAYING EASLEY IS FOUR FOOT TALL, 40 TO 50 POUNDS, WITH BLOND HAIR, LAST SEEN WEARING A NIGHTGOWN, AND ABEL IS THREE FOOT SIX, 35 TO 40 POUNDS WITH BLOND HAIR AND BLUE EYES. THEY SAY SAINT CLAIR IS EXPECTED TO BE TRAVELING SOUTH ON OR NEAR U.S. ONE. IN A NEWER BLUE MODEL CHEVY SUV. THEY’RE ADVISING PEOPLE, IF YOU SEE SAINT CLAIR NOT TO APPROACH HER, BUT INSTEAD TO CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY. COVERING VOLUSIA COUNTY LI

    Woman accused of abducting 2 children arrested in Seminole County

    Updated: 2:59 AM EST Dec 22, 2025

    Editorial Standards

    UPDATE: Emily St. Clair has been located and taken into custody in Seminole County.The children were unharmed and reunited with their father. ORIGINAL STORY: The Edgewater Police Department is looking for a woman accused of abducting two children she has been court-ordered to have no contact with.According to police, Emily St. Clair took 7-year-old Eislee Kraus and 5-year-old Abel Kraus from their father’s vehicle at a gas station in the 600 block of West Indian River Boulevard Sunday evening. St. Clair allegedly followed them and took the children after their father went inside the gas station.Police said St. Clair has an active felony warrant for drug possession and a DCF court order prohibiting her from being in contact with the children.She was last seen as a passenger in a newer-model Chevrolet SUV traveling southbound on U.S. 1 from West Indian River Boulevard.Police are asking anyone who sees St. Clair or the children not to approach them but to call 911 instead. Anyone with information about St. Clair or the children’s whereabouts is asked to call the Edgewater Police Department’s non-emergency phone number at 386-424-2000 and press option 3 or to email tips@cityofedgewater.org.Child descriptionsEislee Kraus (DOB: 3/28/2018)White femaleBlonde hairApproximately 4′ tall, 40–50 poundsLast seen wearing a one-piece nightgown (possibly purple)Abel Kraus (DOB: 8/24/2020)White maleBlonde hair, blue eyesApproximately 3’6″, 35–40 poundsClothing unknown

    UPDATE: Emily St. Clair has been located and taken into custody in Seminole County.

    The children were unharmed and reunited with their father.

    ORIGINAL STORY: The Edgewater Police Department is looking for a woman accused of abducting two children she has been court-ordered to have no contact with.

    According to police, Emily St. Clair took 7-year-old Eislee Kraus and 5-year-old Abel Kraus from their father’s vehicle at a gas station in the 600 block of West Indian River Boulevard Sunday evening. St. Clair allegedly followed them and took the children after their father went inside the gas station.

    Police said St. Clair has an active felony warrant for drug possession and a DCF court order prohibiting her from being in contact with the children.

    She was last seen as a passenger in a newer-model Chevrolet SUV traveling southbound on U.S. 1 from West Indian River Boulevard.

    emily st clair

    Edgewater Police Department

    Police are asking anyone who sees St. Clair or the children not to approach them but to call 911 instead. Anyone with information about St. Clair or the children’s whereabouts is asked to call the Edgewater Police Department’s non-emergency phone number at 386-424-2000 and press option 3 or to email tips@cityofedgewater.org.

    Child descriptions

    Eislee Kraus (DOB: 3/28/2018)

    • White female
    • Blonde hair
    • Approximately 4′ tall, 40–50 pounds
    • Last seen wearing a one-piece nightgown (possibly purple)

    Abel Kraus (DOB: 8/24/2020)

    • White male
    • Blonde hair, blue eyes
    • Approximately 3’6″, 35–40 pounds
    • Clothing unknown

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  • Father reunites with daughter in Marion County after searching for 40 years

    Debra Newton was arrested by Marion County sheriff’s deputies after a tip led to a father and daughter reuniting for the first time in more than 40 years. Body camera video captured the moment deputies approached a woman they knew as Sharon Neely.”How are you doing, Ms. Sharon?” said one deputy.She was known in her Marion County community, but according to deputies, her real identity is Debra Newton.Newton was arrested by Marion County deputies for a warrant out of Kentucky after authorities said she abducted her own child.”When the tip came in, it says they recognized this lady from the social media post as being a person who was wanted out of Kentucky,” said Valerie Strong, public information officer for the MCSO.That tip was the last piece that ended a cold case from more than four decades ago.Joe Newton and his wife, Debra, were preparing to move to Georgia in 1983, but when Joe came home, Debra had taken off with their 3-year-old daughter, Michelle.After the pair disappeared, Joe searched for the two. For years, the family didn’t know if Michelle was alive.After Debra’s arrest, Michelle reunited with her father.”She’s always been in our hearts. I cannot explain that moment of that woman walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter,” Joe said.The news also meant Michelle had to learn her identity. She said she came home from work to find police at her door.”You are not who you think you are. You are a missing person. You are Michelle Marie Newton,” she was told.Michelle learned she had a family who never stopped searching for her and a father who never stopped loving her.”I wouldn’t trade that moment,” Joe said. “It was just like seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel.”Despite life turning upside down, Michelle showed no anger toward her mother. She said she wants to heal and move forward.”My intention is to support them both through this and trying to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal and hopefully, you know, there’s just apologies and start healing,” she said.Debra was sent back to Jefferson County in Louisville, Kentucky, where she appeared in court Monday. She has been arraigned on a felony charge of custodial interference, according to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in Jefferson County. Felony custodial-kidnapping charges carry no statute of limitations in Kentucky. She is due back in court in January.

    Debra Newton was arrested by Marion County sheriff’s deputies after a tip led to a father and daughter reuniting for the first time in more than 40 years.

    Body camera video captured the moment deputies approached a woman they knew as Sharon Neely.

    “How are you doing, Ms. Sharon?” said one deputy.

    She was known in her Marion County community, but according to deputies, her real identity is Debra Newton.

    Newton was arrested by Marion County deputies for a warrant out of Kentucky after authorities said she abducted her own child.

    “When the tip came in, it says they recognized this lady from the social media post as being a person who was wanted out of Kentucky,” said Valerie Strong, public information officer for the MCSO.

    That tip was the last piece that ended a cold case from more than four decades ago.

    Joe Newton and his wife, Debra, were preparing to move to Georgia in 1983, but when Joe came home, Debra had taken off with their 3-year-old daughter, Michelle.

    After the pair disappeared, Joe searched for the two. For years, the family didn’t know if Michelle was alive.

    After Debra’s arrest, Michelle reunited with her father.

    “She’s always been in our hearts. I cannot explain that moment of that woman walking in and getting to put my arms back around my daughter,” Joe said.

    The news also meant Michelle had to learn her identity. She said she came home from work to find police at her door.

    “You are not who you think you are. You are a missing person. You are Michelle Marie Newton,” she was told.

    Michelle learned she had a family who never stopped searching for her and a father who never stopped loving her.

    “I wouldn’t trade that moment,” Joe said. “It was just like seeing her when she was first born. It was like an angel.”

    Despite life turning upside down, Michelle showed no anger toward her mother. She said she wants to heal and move forward.

    “My intention is to support them both through this and trying to navigate and help them both just wrap it up so that we can all heal and hopefully, you know, there’s just apologies and start healing,” she said.

    Debra was sent back to Jefferson County in Louisville, Kentucky, where she appeared in court Monday. She has been arraigned on a felony charge of custodial interference, according to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in Jefferson County. Felony custodial-kidnapping charges carry no statute of limitations in Kentucky. She is due back in court in January.

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  • Father and son were racing at nearly 100 mph just before double-fatal Lakewood crash, police say

    The father and son accused of causing a double-fatal crash in Lakewood while street-racing earlier this month were driving nearly 100 mph before the collision and are believed to have been drinking that night, according to an arrest affidavit.

    Gregory Mark Giles, 65, and Bryce Anneaus Giles, 26, turned themselves in to Lakewood police Monday and were arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, engaging in a speed contest and reckless driving.

    The multi-vehicle crash happened at 9:08 p.m. Nov. 13 at South Kipling Parkway and West Mississippi Avenue. When Lakewood police arrived, they found three vehicles had been involved in the collision — a 2004 Toyota 4Runner, a 2014 Ford Expedition and a 2015 Ford Explorer, the arrest affidavit said.

    A witness told police they saw the 4Runner turn left in front of the speeding Explorer, from southbound Kipling onto eastbound Mississippi, while the light was green, and saw the vehicles’ impact at a high rate of speed.

    The driver and passenger of the 4Runner — Dalton Smith, 28, and Demi Iglesias, 26 — were taken to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital, where they later died from their injuries, according to Lakewood police.

    Gregory Giles was driving the Explorer with his other son, Brayden, in the vehicle while Bryce Giles was driving the Expedition, according to the affidavit.

    Brayden Giles told police they were on their way to go bowling and were driving the speed limit. However, Gregory Giles was seen by traffic cameras and witnesses racing the Explorer, repeatedly driving side by side and exceeding the 45 mph speed limit.

    Camera footage showed both the Expedition and Explorer were traveling “faster than normal traffic flow,” according to the affidavit. Police analyzed both vehicles’ data recorders and found the Expedition and Explorer were travelling 99.4 mph and 93 mph, respectively, five seconds before their airbags deployed, according to the affidavit.

    In addition, while agents were at the scene of the crash, they reported finding two empty alcohol “shooters,” or 50ml bottles. One of the bottles was 99 Brand Black Cherry and the other was 99 Brand Apples, both labeled as 99 proof alcohol.

    The bottles were located in plain view in the driver’s side footwell of the Ford Explorer that Gregory Giles was driving, according to the affidavit.

    When police asked Brayden Giles if he had seen his father drink any alcohol prior to the crash, Brayden Giles said that he and his father had each drunk one beer, according to the arrest affidavit.

    Brayden Giles told police his brother Bryce had also drunk beer before leaving. When asked how much alcohol Bryce had consumed, Giles said, “I think he had a lot,” according to the affidavit.

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  • Man allegedly kills 1-year-old daughter after release from prison in another child abuse case

    A Long Beach man who previously served time in prison for felony child abuse was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of torturing and murdering his 14-month-old daughter, authorities said.

    The toddler’s father, Alfredo Munoz, 40, and stepmother Kelly Munoz, 34, were taken into custody in the 200 block of East Louise Street in connection with the child’s death, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

    Officers initially responded to a hospital on Nov. 7 where the toddler was unresponsive with signs of severe trauma, police said. She was put on life support and died three days later. Her identity is being withheld.

    Over the course of a two-week investigation, homicide detectives determined that the toddler had been a victim of ongoing abuse and that her death was a direct result of abuse from her father and stepmother, police said.

    Both suspects are being held without bail at the Long Beach Jail, and detectives plan to present the case to the L.A. County district attorney’s office for filing consideration next week.

    Alfredo Munoz was previously sentenced to four years in state prison in December 2021 after he pleaded no contest to one count of willful cruelty to a child causing possible injury or death, according to court records.

    A law enforcement source confirmed the man charged in the prior Long Beach abuse case was the same man arrested Tuesday. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with the media.

    Munoz had been released from custody at the time the alleged abuse of the now-deceased toddler took place.

    Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Homicide Dets. Ethan Shear and Kelsey Myers at (562) 570-7244. Anonymous tips can be left at (800) 222-8477 or at www.lacrimestoppers.org.

    Clara Harter, James Queally

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  • ‘I was in a headlock’: 14-year-old boy recovering after violent attack at Pleasant Grove High School

    A violent attack at Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove sent a 14-year-old boy to the hospital after he was assaulted by a group of students, resulting in the arrest of four students. Hunter, who didn’t want to share his last name, said that it all started over a girl he used to date, who he said then dated one of the alleged attackers. “I just got out of class and then I just see that group of kids coming towards me,” Hunter said. He described how one of the students approached him while yelling and punched him. He said as he took off his backpack and tried to defend himself, three other students joined in the attack. “More kids started going in and I was in a headlock. And then, I got thrown to the floor and, like, this kid is like, three times my size, and he’s like sitting on me, throwing punches at me and then another kid joins in, kicks me and starts hitting me,” he said.Screenshots from a video sent to Hunter’s father by the Elk Grove Police Department show the fight ending with Hunter face down on the ground as a teacher intervened. “I literally got full-on stomped into concrete like face down,” Hunter said. “I’m just laying on the floor. I’m not even fighting back.”The four students involved, all 14 years old, were arrested on assault charges and taken to juvenile hall, according to the Elk Grove Police Department. Hunter was taken to the hospital following the attack, where he was treated for his injuries, including a concussion. “He told me he’s like, ‘Dad I could have been killed. I could be paralyzed. I couldn’t play football anymore,’” Sean, Hunter’s father, said. While Hunter is expected to recover, his father said he wished more had been done sooner. “It just blows my mind that where’s security? You know, there’s teachers there,” he said.The school principal sent a message to families on Thursday, stating that school staff and security responded immediately to de-escalate the situation and emphasized that safety is their top priority. “Today, an altercation occurred on campus involving several students. School staff, along with EGUSD Safety and Security, responded immediately to de-escalate the situation and ensure the safety of all students. Due to the nature of the incident, law enforcement was called as a precautionary measure.Thanks to the swift and coordinated actions of our staff, the situation was contained. School administration, law enforcement, and support staff are actively following up with the students involved and have contacted their parents/guardians directly,” the message reads.However, Hunter said he does not feel safe. “I got jumped twice in the same month,” he said. Now, his father is considering pulling him out of Pleasant Grove High School. “What’s going on at the school with social media, the violence, the just the kids getting off on it, like thinking it’s like it’s entertainment at school these days. It’s just, it blows my mind,” he said.Elk Grove Unified School District is investigating the incident.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    A violent attack at Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove sent a 14-year-old boy to the hospital after he was assaulted by a group of students, resulting in the arrest of four students.

    Hunter, who didn’t want to share his last name, said that it all started over a girl he used to date, who he said then dated one of the alleged attackers.

    “I just got out of class and then I just see that group of kids coming towards me,” Hunter said.

    He described how one of the students approached him while yelling and punched him. He said as he took off his backpack and tried to defend himself, three other students joined in the attack.

    “More kids started going in and I was in a headlock. And then, I got thrown to the floor and, like, this kid is like, three times my size, and he’s like sitting on me, throwing punches at me and then another kid joins in, kicks me and starts hitting me,” he said.

    Screenshots from a video sent to Hunter’s father by the Elk Grove Police Department show the fight ending with Hunter face down on the ground as a teacher intervened.

    “I literally got full-on stomped into concrete like face down,” Hunter said. “I’m just laying on the floor. I’m not even fighting back.”

    The four students involved, all 14 years old, were arrested on assault charges and taken to juvenile hall, according to the Elk Grove Police Department.

    Hunter was taken to the hospital following the attack, where he was treated for his injuries, including a concussion.

    “He told me he’s like, ‘Dad I could have been killed. I could be paralyzed. I couldn’t play football anymore,’” Sean, Hunter’s father, said.

    While Hunter is expected to recover, his father said he wished more had been done sooner.

    “It just blows my mind that where’s security? You know, there’s teachers there,” he said.

    The school principal sent a message to families on Thursday, stating that school staff and security responded immediately to de-escalate the situation and emphasized that safety is their top priority.

    “Today, an altercation occurred on campus involving several students. School staff, along with EGUSD Safety and Security, responded immediately to de-escalate the situation and ensure the safety of all students. Due to the nature of the incident, law enforcement was called as a precautionary measure.

    Thanks to the swift and coordinated actions of our staff, the situation was contained. School administration, law enforcement, and support staff are actively following up with the students involved and have contacted their parents/guardians directly,” the message reads.

    However, Hunter said he does not feel safe.

    “I got jumped twice in the same month,” he said.

    Now, his father is considering pulling him out of Pleasant Grove High School.

    “What’s going on at the school with social media, the violence, the just the kids getting off on it, like thinking it’s like it’s entertainment at school these days. It’s just, it blows my mind,” he said.

    Elk Grove Unified School District is investigating the incident.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • SoCal cop was among Hollywood producer’s rape victims. She died days before his sentencing

    It’s unknown whether self-proclaimed “entertainment professional” David Pearce knew the fate of the women he was prosecuted for drugging and raping over a 14-year period.

    What is certain, however, is that one of those women — who transformed her sexual assault trauma into a service career — wasn’t there to witness his sentencing.

    Pearce was handed a 146-year prison sentence Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court after being convicted of first-degree murder for the overdose deaths of model Christy Giles and architect Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, as well as the rape of seven other women from 2007 to 2021.

    Among Pearce’s victims was La Mesa Police Officer Lauren Craven, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office. The 25-year-old officer was struck and killed by a vehicle on the 8 Freeway near San Diego on Oct. 20.

    The New York Post first reported her connection to the case.

    Craven was helping motorists involved in a traffic collision when she was fatally struck. One of those individuals also was killed by the same driver. A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

    Craven was honored with a funeral procession from San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium to Skyline Church in Rancho San Diego on Tuesday.

    The L.A. County district attorney’s office did not confirm any details other than that Pearce was accused of sexually assaulting Craven in February 2020.

    “Somebody dropped something in her drink, and then when she was unconscious applied IV drugs and kept her for a day and a half,” her father, David Craven, told NBC 7 San Diego.

    Afterward, “she decided right then and there, ‘I’m going to become a police officer,’” he told the outlet.

    At the time, Craven was a student at Loyola Marymount University. She graduated in 2023, entered the police academy and joined the La Mesa Police Department in February 2024.

    Her father said his 115-pound daughter took close to a year off to build her strength for the rigors of training.

    “It was her dream,” her father said of graduating from the police academy.

    Andrew J. Campa

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  • Father critically injured after car slams into Sacramento home

    A Sacramento family is grappling with the aftermath of a police chase that ended when a stolen vehicle crashed into their home, critically injuring the father and two sons and leaving the house severely damaged.Marissa Fulcher, daughter and sister of the victims, described the scene as “heartbreaking.”“My dad’s fighting for his life,” she said.Eric Adversalo and his sons, Nicolas and Xavier, were inside their home near the 7300 block of Circle Parkway when the stolen car slammed into the front of the residence during a Sacramento Police Department pursuit. Fulcher said her father was pinned under the vehicle, while her brothers were trapped against a wall and under a refrigerator.“He’s not able to breathe on his own. He wasn’t able to hold his own breathing,” Fulcher said of her father’s condition.Photos of the home show a gaping hole in the front, leaving the family unable to return.“They had to put 2x4s up in the house to keep it from collapsing. And the disaster inside, there’s not much left,” Fulcher said.Fulcher said the crash will be a major personal and financial setback for the family.“Not only are there medical bills, but it keeps them from working. It keeps my stepmom, who would normally support my dad while he’s here, from working to care for my brothers and dad. The future is unknown for our family,” she said.Sacramento police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Tashawn Dorrough of Sacramento County. It was the second crash this week in Sacramento involving a suspected stolen vehicle during a police pursuit that affected bystanders.Sacramento Police Department shared with KCRA 3 their pursuit protocol, saying, “Our officers constantly reevaluate the conditions of a pursuit and the district sergeant is responsible for monitoring a pursuit. We need to refocus our thoughts to the fact that this suspect stole a vehicle from a mother, he then decided to flee from officers when they lawfully attempted to stop him. That suspect put everyone around him’s safety in danger by HIS actions.”The family has started a GoFundMe to cover medical expenses and home repairs and is asking for community support.“I’m trying to keep it together for them. I’m trying to be strong, but we can only do the best we can,” Fulcher said.

    A Sacramento family is grappling with the aftermath of a police chase that ended when a stolen vehicle crashed into their home, critically injuring the father and two sons and leaving the house severely damaged.

    Marissa Fulcher, daughter and sister of the victims, described the scene as “heartbreaking.”

    “My dad’s fighting for his life,” she said.

    Eric Adversalo and his sons, Nicolas and Xavier, were inside their home near the 7300 block of Circle Parkway when the stolen car slammed into the front of the residence during a Sacramento Police Department pursuit. Fulcher said her father was pinned under the vehicle, while her brothers were trapped against a wall and under a refrigerator.

    “He’s not able to breathe on his own. He wasn’t able to hold his own breathing,” Fulcher said of her father’s condition.

    Photos of the home show a gaping hole in the front, leaving the family unable to return.

    “They had to put 2x4s up in the house to keep it from collapsing. And the disaster inside, there’s not much left,” Fulcher said.

    Fulcher said the crash will be a major personal and financial setback for the family.

    “Not only are there medical bills, but it keeps them from working. It keeps my stepmom, who would normally support my dad while he’s here, from working to care for my brothers and dad. The future is unknown for our family,” she said.

    Sacramento police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Tashawn Dorrough of Sacramento County. It was the second crash this week in Sacramento involving a suspected stolen vehicle during a police pursuit that affected bystanders.

    Sacramento Police Department shared with KCRA 3 their pursuit protocol, saying, “Our officers constantly reevaluate the conditions of a pursuit and the district sergeant is responsible for monitoring a pursuit. We need to refocus our thoughts to the fact that this suspect stole a vehicle from a mother, he then decided to flee from officers when they lawfully attempted to stop him. That suspect put everyone around him’s safety in danger by HIS actions.”

    The family has started a GoFundMe to cover medical expenses and home repairs and is asking for community support.

    “I’m trying to keep it together for them. I’m trying to be strong, but we can only do the best we can,” Fulcher said.

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  • Commentary: Former bracero doesn’t want the program to return. ‘People will be treated like slaves’

    One May morning in 1961, 21-year-old Manuel Alvarado strapped on his huaraches, stuffed three changes of clothes and a thin blanket into a nylon tote bag and bid his parents farewell. He was leaving their rancho of La Cañada, Zacatecas for el Norte.

    The United States had been kind and cruel to his farming family. His uncles had regaled him with tales of the easy money available for legal seasonal workers — known as braceros — which allowed them to buy land and livestock back home.

    His father, however, was one of a million-plus Mexican men deported in 1955 during Operation Wetback, an Eisenhower administration policy of mass removal in the name of national security and taking back jobs for Americans.

    “They sent my father to the border with only the clothes on his back,” Alvarado, now 85, told me in Spanish while sinking into a comfy couch at his daughter’s well-kept Anaheim home.

    His father’s mistreatment didn’t scare Alvarado back then. He boarded a train with his uncles and cousins bound for Chihuahua, where a Mexican health official checked everyone’s hands at a recruiting office to make sure they were calloused enough for the hard work ahead. The Alvarados then crossed into a processing center near El Paso. There, American health inspectors typically forced aspiring braceros to strip naked before subjecting them to blood tests, X-rays, rectal exams and a final dusting of their bodies and clothes with DDT.

    Next came an overnight bus ride to their final destination: tiny Swink, Colo., where Japanese American farmers had previously employed Alvarado’s wealthier uncles, writing a letter of recommendation this time to make crossing over easier. Alvarado stayed there until November before returning home. For the next three summers, he worked as a bracero.

    A crowd of Mexicans gathers at the Mexicali border crossing seeking work in the United States during the Bracero Program.

    (Los Angeles Times)

    “No regrets,” Alvarado said of those years.

    He was dressed in standard Mexican grandpa attire: long flannel shirt, blue hat, jeans and sneakers along with a salt-and-pepper mustache and a leather cellphone case hanging from his belt. A nice Stetson was nearby for when it was time to take his portrait. Photos of his grandchildren decorated the living room, along with a Mickey Mouse statue in a skeleton costume and a glass cabinet filled with commemorative tumblers.

    “We were very poor in the rancho,” Alvarado said, recounting how he had to gather and sell firewood as a child to help out his parents. “If it didn’t rain, there would be no harvest and pure misery. The Bracero Program helped a lot of people.”

    Alvarado is a family friend. He knew my paternal grandfather, José Arellano, who grew up one rancho away and toiled in orange groves in Anaheim as a bracero in the 1950s, across the street from the elementary school my sister and I would later attend. My Pepe was one of the estimated 2 million Mexican men who took advantage of a program that fundamentally changed the economies of both their home and adopted countries.

    My dad suggested I speak to Alvarado after I asked him and my uncles about my Pepe’s experience and they admitted to not knowing anything. I especially wanted to hear Alvarado’s insights at a time when farmers are pleading with Donald Trump to stop his deportation tsunami because crops are rotting in the fields — something the president acknowledges is a problem.

    “We can’t let our farmers not have anybody,” Trump told CNBC in August, musing in the same interview that he wanted to figure out a way to allow agricultural workers to work legally because “these people do it naturally,” while “people that live in the inner city are not doing that work.”

    That’s why Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz introduced the Bracero 2.0 Act this summer, arguing that the original program — which ended in 1964 after civil rights activists complained that it exploited migrant workers — “created new opportunities for millions and provided critical support for Texas agriculture.”

    When I told Alvarado about a possible revival, he sat up and shook his head.

    “If that happens, those people will be treated like slaves,” the ex-bracero responded. “Just like what happened to us.”

    October 1963 photo of Mexican workers in the bracero program working in pepper fields in Fresno County.

    October 1963 photo of Mexican workers in the bracero program working in pepper fields in Fresno County.

    (Bill Murphy/Los Angeles Times)

    Though two months shy of 86, Alvarado remembers those bracero days like they happened last week. The amount he was paid: 45 cents an hour in Colorado to harvest onions and melons. Fifty cents for every box of tomatoes in Stockton the following year. $2.25 per pound of cotton in Dell City, Texas, where the farmer’s son frantically biked into the fields to yell that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The farmer then gathered everyone around his truck to hear about the tragedy on the radio.

    Fourteen hours a day, seven days a week was the norm. Saturday evenings were spent going into the nearest town to buy provisions and a few hours of entertainment — movies, dancing, drinking. Sometimes, the farmers gave the braceros free food, which was required per the agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments. Most of the time, they didn’t.

    “At night, you couldn’t even stand up straight anymore,” said Alvarado, flinching at the memory. His uncles ribbed him — “They’d tell me, ‘Now you know what el Norte is, so you know how to win money. Learn to love it.’”

    But not everything went terribly.

    In Swink, the Japanese American bosses gave Alvarado and his relatives a private cottage, although baths were limited to wading into irrigation canals or boiling water for themselves, “al estilo rancho.” The Hiraki family talked to the Mexican workers about their incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II, to show that racism could be overcome. In Texas, a white foreman stopped Alvarado and his group from picking in cotton fields just before a plane covered the crop with DDT.

    “The Americans were very kind,” Alvarado continued. That included the Border Patrol. “They’d go up to us in the field. ‘Good morning, everyone. Please let us see your papers.’ They were always very respectful.”

    My father scoffed. “No, I don’t believe that.”

    Alvarado smiled at my dad. “, Lorenzo. Not like today.

    “What I didn’t like were the Mexican bosses in California,” he continued. They were the ones who treated us like slaves. They’d yell all the time — ‘¡Dóblense [Get to it], wetbacks!’ — and then they used even worse words.”

    As the years passed, it became harder to get papers to work legally in the U.S. Since La Cañada was so small, the Mexican government only allowed three of its residents to become braceros each year via a lottery. The Japanese Americans in Colorado never sponsored Alvarado again, after he declined an offer to enlist in the military. He won the lottery in 1962, then bought someone else’s number the following two years.

    In 1965, La Cañada’s men waited for the annual arrival of Mexican government officials to allot the bracero slots. But no one came.

    Alvarado laughed. “That’s when people started to come to el Norte another way.”

    Migrant Bend Plaza

    A monument dedicated to braceros in downtown Los Angeles.

    (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

    And that’s what he did too, entering the country illegally a few years later to work in Pasadena restaurants before moving to Anaheim for its large jerezano diaspora. His wife and eight children eventually followed. They became citizens after the 1986 amnesty, and Alvarado frequently spoke of his bracero past to his family — “so they know how people came here to sacrifice so their children could study and prepare for better things.”

    All of his children bought homes with their blue-collar incomes. His grandchildren earned college degrees; two of them served in the military.

    I asked him if a guest worker program could succeed today.

    “It wouldn’t be good, and it makes no sense,” Alvarado said. “Why not let the people here stay? They’re already working. Deporting them is horrible. And then to bring people to replace them? The people who’ll come will have no rights other than to come and get kicked out at the will of the government.“

    In the 2000s, braceros brought a class-action lawsuit after discovering that the U.S. had withheld 10% of their earnings each year and handed the money to Mexico. The Mexican government agreed to pay up to $3,800 to each surviving bracero who lived in the U.S., but Alvarado never applied.

    “One’s ignorant about those things or just gets too busy to bother,” he said. “Besides, I found my good life my own way. But it reminded me that when you signed that contract, you had no opportunities besides whatever mercy farmers gave you.”

    Could Trump find American-born workers to do agricultural work? Alvarado’s face scrunched.

    “They wouldn’t hire people from here. They don’t want it. I never saw white people work alongside us Mexicans. White people have another mentality, different expectations. They think different from someone from the rancho.”

    “They want easy jobs,” my dad joked.

    “No, Lorenzo. They don’t want to suffer.”

    Alvarado’s soft voice became even more tender. “They shouldn’t.”

    Gustavo Arellano

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  • Human remains in Washington state identified as Travis Decker, wanted for killing his daughters

    Forensic tests confirmed that human remains found on a remote mountain in Washington state this month were those of Travis Decker, a former soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters last spring, officials confirmed Thursday.His remains were discovered on a steep, remote, wooded slope partway up Grindstone Mountain in central Washington, less than a mile from the campsite where the bodies of 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker, and 5-year-old Olivia Decker were found on June 2, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.Law enforcement teams had been searching more than three months for Decker, 32, before the sheriff’s office announced last week it had located human remains believed to be his. Sheriff Mike Morrison said Thursday that DNA tests on clothing found at the scene, as well as from the remains, matched Decker.The sheriff said investigators wanted to honor the girls’ memory by solving the case, and he apologized to their mother, Whitney Decker, for it taking so long.“I hope you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is accounted for,” Morrison said.Decker had been with his daughters on a scheduled visit but failed to bring them back to his former wife, who, a year ag,o said that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable.He was often living out of his truck, she said in a petition seeking to restrict him from having overnight visits with them.A deputy found Decker’s truck as well as the girls’ bodies three days after Decker failed to return them to their mother’s house. Autopsies found the girls had been suffocated.Decker was an infantryman in the Army from March 2013 to July 2021 and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014. He had training in navigation, survival, and other skills, authorities said, and once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the grid.More than 100 officials with an array of state and federal agencies searched hundreds of square miles, much of it mountainous and remote, by land, water, and air during the on and off search. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his capture.At one point early in the search, authorities thought they spotted Decker near a remote alpine lake after receiving a tip from hikers.Officials say the coroner’s office continues to work on determining the cause and time of his death.

    Forensic tests confirmed that human remains found on a remote mountain in Washington state this month were those of Travis Decker, a former soldier wanted in the deaths of his three young daughters last spring, officials confirmed Thursday.

    His remains were discovered on a steep, remote, wooded slope partway up Grindstone Mountain in central Washington, less than a mile from the campsite where the bodies of 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker, and 5-year-old Olivia Decker were found on June 2, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.

    Law enforcement teams had been searching more than three months for Decker, 32, before the sheriff’s office announced last week it had located human remains believed to be his. Sheriff Mike Morrison said Thursday that DNA tests on clothing found at the scene, as well as from the remains, matched Decker.

    The sheriff said investigators wanted to honor the girls’ memory by solving the case, and he apologized to their mother, Whitney Decker, for it taking so long.

    “I hope you can rest easier at night knowing that Travis is accounted for,” Morrison said.

    Decker had been with his daughters on a scheduled visit but failed to bring them back to his former wife, who, a year ag,o said that his mental health issues had worsened and that he had become increasingly unstable.

    He was often living out of his truck, she said in a petition seeking to restrict him from having overnight visits with them.

    A deputy found Decker’s truck as well as the girls’ bodies three days after Decker failed to return them to their mother’s house. Autopsies found the girls had been suffocated.

    Decker was an infantryman in the Army from March 2013 to July 2021 and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2014. He had training in navigation, survival, and other skills, authorities said, and once spent more than two months living in the backwoods off the grid.

    More than 100 officials with an array of state and federal agencies searched hundreds of square miles, much of it mountainous and remote, by land, water, and air during the on and off search. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his capture.

    At one point early in the search, authorities thought they spotted Decker near a remote alpine lake after receiving a tip from hikers.

    Officials say the coroner’s office continues to work on determining the cause and time of his death.

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  • Menendez brothers won’t get new trial; judge rejects petition over sexual abuse claims

    A judge has rejected Erik and Lyle Menendez’s petition for a new trial, ruling that evidence showing they suffered sexual abuse at their father’s hands would not have changed the outcome of the murder trial that has put them in prison for more than 35 years for gunning down their parents.

    The ruling, handed down by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William C. Ryan on Monday, is the latest blow to the brothers’ bid for release. Both were denied parole during lengthy hearings in late August.

    A habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of the brothers in 2023 argued they should have been able to present additional evidence at trial that their father, Jose Menendez, was sexually abusive.

    The new evidence included a 1988 letter that Erik Menendez sent to his cousin, Andy Cano, saying he was abused into his late teens. There were also allegations made by Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, who claimed Jose Menendez raped him.

    The brothers have long argued they were in fear for their lives that their father would keep abusing them, and that their parents would kill them to cover up the nightmarish conditions in their Beverly Hills home.

    Prosecutors contended the brothers killed their parents with shotguns in 1989 to get access to their massive inheritance, and have repeatedly highlighted Erik and Lyle’s wild spending spree in the months that followed their parents’ deaths.

    “Neither piece of evidence adds to the allegations of abuse the jury already considered, yet found that the brothers planned, then executed that plan to kill their abusive father and complicit mother,” Ryan wrote. “The court finds that these two pieces of evidence presented here would have not have resulted in a hung jury nor in the conviction of a lesser instructed offense.”

    Ryan agreed with Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman that the petition should not grant the brothers a new trial because the abuse evidence would not have changed the fact that they had planned and carried out the execution-style killings.

    Ryan wrote the new evidence would not have resulted in the trial court proceeding differently because the brothers could not show they experienced a fear of “imminent peril.”

    A spokesperson for the group of more than 30 Menendez relatives who have been fighting for the brothers’ release did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office was not immediately available for comment.

    The gruesome killings occurred after the brothers used cash to buy the shotguns and attacked their parents while they watched a movie in the family living room.

    Prosecutors said Jose Menendez was struck five times with shotgun blasts, including in the back of the head, and Kitty Menendez crawled on the floor wounded before the brothers reloaded and fired a final, fatal blast.

    The petition rejected this week was one of three paths the Menendez legal team has pursued in seeking freedom for the brothers. Another judge earlier this year resentenced them to 50 years to life for the murders, making them eligible for parole after they were originally sentenced to life in prison.

    Both were denied release at their first parole hearing, but could end up before the state panel again in as soon as 18 months. Clemency petitions are also still pending before Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    The first trial ended with hung juries for each brother. In the second, allegations of abuse and supporting testimonies were restricted, and Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1996.

    Erik Menendez insisted at his parole hearing that he and his brother had purchased the shotguns because they believed that their parents might try to kill them, or that his father would go to his room to rape him.

    “That was going to happen,” he said. “One way or another. If he was alive, that was going to happen.”

    Asked why the two killed their mother as well, Erik Menendez said that the decision was made after learning she was aware of the abuse.

    “Step by step, my mom had shown she was united with my dad,” he said at the hearing. “On that night, I saw them as one person. Had she not been in the room, maybe it would have been different.”

    Richard Winton, James Queally

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  • Dad of Burning Man homicide victim appeals to Trump and FBI to solve the case

    Ten days after a Russian man was mysteriously killed among a crowd of tens of thousands at Burning Man, Russian media is reporting that the man’s father has asked President Trump to have the FBI investigate.

    Vadim Kruglov, 37, had been living in Washington state and, according to friends’ Instagram accounts, was making his first pilgrimage to the desert festival. He was killed on Aug. 30 sometime between 8 and 9:30 p.m., his body found “in a pool of blood” around the time the giant wooden effigy of a man was lighted on fire.

    The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction over Black Rock Desert where the annual event takes place, is leading the homicide investigation but has made no public comments about what may have happened. The agency has issued public appeals for information about “any person who would commit such a heinous crime against another human being.”

    The agency has also announced that Kruglov’s family has been formally notified of his death, and that “our sincerest condolences from the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office go out to Vadim Kruglov’s family for their tragic loss.”

    Sheriff’s officials declined to comment on reports of the father’s appeal, or his criticisms of the pace of the investigation.

    The Moscow Times reported Thursday that the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published a video from Kruglov’s father Thursday.

    In it, Igor Kruglov bemoaned that “ten days have passed” and yet the investigation is “being conducted by one local sheriff.”

    “Evil must be punished,” the father continues, “therefore, I appeal to you, dear Mr. President, and ask you to order the FBI to immediately begin investigating the murder of my son.”

    Kruglov’s friends have been pushing a similar message to their tens of thousands of Instagram followers.

    One post claimed that Kruglov died “from a professional knife strike to the neck — a single fatal blow. This happened in a place where more than 80,000 people from all over the world were gathered.” The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the manner in which Kruglov was killed or say whether the friend’s post was accurate.

    The Instagram post contained several photographs of Kruglov enjoying himself at the festival.

    “A young and talented man, who made a big contribution to this world, has been killed,” the friend wrote. “And the person who did this is still walking free.” The post added: “We strongly believe a federal investigation is needed.”

    Jessica Garrison

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