Tag: investigator

She was a victim of the 'Happy Face Killer.' Investigators close in on ID but ask public's help

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More than 30 years after a woman died violently at the hands of the “Happy Face Killer,” Riverside County investigators are close to a breakthrough in identifying her — but they’re seeking the public’s help.

The serial killer, whose name is Keith Hunter Jesperson, boasted of killing the woman and seven other female victims in the early 1990s, sending letters to the press about his exploits that he signed with a smiling face.

He referred to the woman he killed in Riverside as “Claudia,” but investigators have never been able to confirm her identity, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

“Our goal is to identify this victim and provide closure to her family, wherever they may be,” Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin said in a statement. “We are hopeful someone hearing any of these details may remember anything that could help us reunite this woman with the family who may have been looking for her for over three decades.”

Jesperson has been in custody since 1995 and pleaded guilty to murdering this Jane Doe in 2010, according to authorities. In his confession, Jesperson said he met the victim in August 1992 at a brake check area along Highway 15 south of Victorville.

Jesperson had been working as a long-haul truck driver. The woman hitched a ride with him, saying she was going to Los Angeles, but Jesperson had been headed southeast toward Arizona on his truck route.

He drove her south to Cabazon and then a rest stop in the Coachella Valley, where Jesperson killed her in his truck after a dispute about money, he said. He then drove seven miles north of Blythe along Highway 95 and disposed of the woman’s body on the side of the road. Her remains were discovered on Aug. 30, 1992.

The woman was described by Jesperson as in her 20s, about 5-foot-6 and 140 to 150 pounds. She had shaggy blond hair and a tattoo of two dots on the left side of the thumb on her right hand. She was wearing a T-shirt with a motorcycle on it when her body was found.

Forensic investigators using DNA evidence and genealogists have determined the woman’s biological father, now dead, hailed from Cameron County in Texas. Her mother remains unidentified but could have been from Louisiana or southeastern Texas. Investigators have contacted several people they believe to be half-siblings of the woman, though they told investigators they were not aware of her and could not identify her.

Anyone with potential leads can contact the Riverside County district attorney’s cold case hotline at (951) 955-5567 or by emailing coldecaseunit@rivcoda.org.

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Jeremy Childs

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January 10, 2024
Suspect arrested in sexual assault of 12-year-old girl during Culver City home break-in

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A man has been arrested on suspicion of breaking in to a Culver City home last month and sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl, police said.

Marcos Maldonado, 35, was on a bus headed to Bakersfield when it was stopped by police and he was arrested Thursday, according to the Culver City Police Department. Police identified Maldonado through DNA evidence.

Maldonado was booked on suspicion of felony aggravated sexual assault of a child and is being held on $1.25 million bail, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department jail records show.

On the morning of Dec. 2 , Culver City police responded to a call of a sexual assault in the Blair Hills neighborhood. Investigators said that Maldonado allegedly entered the child’s home around 2 a.m. and left around 7 a.m. The family reported the crime a short time later, police said.

Officers immediately canvassed the surrounding area for witnesses and additional evidence, recovering video surveillance footage that showed the suspect leaving the area. At the time, investigators released images from that video.

“From the day that this crime occurred, detectives have worked tirelessly to identify and locate the involved suspect,” Jennifer Atenza, a department spokeswoman, said in a news release.

Culver City police collaborated with the UCLA Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office throughout the investigation and will continue to do so for the filing and prosecution of this case, authorities said.

The police department has not received any reports of Maldonado’s connection to additional crimes in the Culver City area. The department said it will continue collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to identify any potential additional victims.

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Anthony De Leon

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January 6, 2024
Dangerous proximity of ships, pipeline led to Orange County oil spill; investigators urge reform

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A federal agency wants changes in how container ships are anchored off Southern California as well as new safety measures for vessels near offshore pipelines to help prevent or minimize ruptures like the one that spilled 25,000 gallons of crude oil off Huntington Beach.

The 2021 spill caused damage to beaches and wetlands and killed scores of fish and birds.

After a sweeping, two-year review, the National Transportation Safety Board released findings Tuesday that the Orange County spill was a direct result of container ships anchoring in close proximity to offshore pipelines. The board called for the U.S. Coast Guard to increase the buffer between anchored ships and pipelines.

The catastrophe also could have been avoided with improved communication and planning between those monitoring the massive container ships in Southern California’s ports and the operators of the pipelines, investigators found.

The probe into the major oil spill off Huntington Beach confirmed initial findings that indicated a months-earlier anchor strike caused the undersea pipeline to burst, sending at least 25,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific. The investigation found no other possible cause of the damage, officials said at an almost four-hour NTSB meeting Tuesday.

NTSB investigators specifically blamed the “proximity of established anchorage positions to the pipeline,” which made it difficult for crews to prevent the anchors of two container ships from striking the pipeline during stormy weather in January 2021.

Though two ships — the MSC Danit and Cosco Beijing — struck the pipeline with their anchors, investigators determined the former caused the “initiating event” that led to the spill.

NTSB officials said that, given the ships’ locations, there was not sufficient time to weigh anchor or redirect the vessels when bad weather struck. This finding led the board to recommend that the U.S. Coast Guard revamp its plan governing the locations of ships anchored off Southern California to provide a greater margin of error among pipelines.

“Anchorages need to be designed to account for the size of vessels using them and the time it takes for these ships’ crews to react when anchor dragging occurs,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.

In the 2021 incident off Huntington Beach, the initial contact from the anchor caused “progressive cracks” in Houston-based Amplify Energy’s 17.3-mile underwater pipeline, which eventually burst in October, almost nine months later. The two giant ships had been anchored outside the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports as vessels stacked up during the COVID-era supply chain backups, officials said.

The probe found two other factors also contributed to the spill: When the ships dragged their anchors, the pipeline operators were never notified — a step that officials noted is not yet required. Also, months later, the operators’ response to leak alarms was significantly delayed.

Based on those findings, board members urged the Coast Guard to implement new alarms for its marine traffic monitors who stand watch over busy waterways, to signal when anchors might come close to pipelines in any U.S. waterway, as well as to put in place processes for notifying pipeline operators when such contact may have occurred.

Although the NTSB does not have regulatory or enforcement power, its recommendations carry weight.

Investigators also found pipeline operators involved in the 2021 spill had “insufficient training,” which contributed to a 14-hour delay in halting the pipeline’s operation after the first alarm sounded to indicate a possible leak — confirming prior reports of a delayed response.

“It took eight total leak alarms before controllers shut down and isolated the line,” the NTSB said in a statement. “Had the San Pedro Bay Pipeline controllers responded in accordance with company procedures and shut down and isolated the line at the first alarm, it would have significantly reduced the volume of crude oil released and the resulting environmental damage.”

The NTSB board also is seeking a federal audit of the company operating the pipeline, a subsidiary of Amplify Energy. Although the report didn’t find any indication that drugs were a factor in the spill, it said operators were not given drug or alcohol tests after the spill — as regulations require — so it’s impossible to know for sure.

Amplify Energy did not immediately respond Tuesday to questions about the findings or recommendations.

“Although there were no human injuries, there most certainly was injury to the environment and to the wildlife and their habitats,” Homendy said Tuesday. She said the estimated damage and cleanup costs from the spill were $160 million, and a total of 116 dead birds were recovered.

Pinpointing fault in the spill before these findings created a string of complicated lawsuits, court cases and settlements. It wasn’t immediately clear if any would be affected by the federal investigation.

The companies behind the two container ships agreed earlier this year to pay Amplify Energy almost $100 million.

As for the energy firm, it pleaded guilty last year to federal environmental charges and later pleaded no contest to state charges, making financial payouts totaling millions of dollars in both cases. Amplify also agreed to pay $50 million to residents and business owners affected by the spill.

Earlier this year, the company reopened the pipeline after receiving an OK from federal regulators.

Times staff writers Laura J. Nelson and Hannah Fry contributed to this report.

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Grace Toohey

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December 6, 2023
Teen found dead 49 years ago in O.C. identified as alleged victim of ‘Scorecard Killer’

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After nearly half a century, authorities have identified the remains of a man who is believed to have been killed by Randy Kraft, California’s notorious “Scorecard Killer” who targeted young men in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Michael Ray Schlicht, who died when he was 17 in 1974, was identified Tuesday by investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department using investigative genetic genealogy.

The Iowa native was found dead on Sept. 14, 1974, on the side of a trail in what is now Aliso Viejo. He had been dead for three to five days, according to authorities, and died of alcohol and diazepam intoxication. His death was initially determined to be accidental.

Michael Ray Schlicht, a John Doe homicide victim in 1974, was identified through investigative genetic genealogy.

(Orange County Sheriff’s Department)

Homicide investigators with the Sheriff’s Department realized in 1980 that there were other young men who had died of the same intoxication, and those deaths were classified as homicides, the department said.

“Over the years, multiple young men were found deceased throughout Orange County and Southern California, including several within a few miles of where [Schlicht’s] remains were discovered,” the department said in a news release.

It was not until 1983 when two California Highway Patrol officers pulled over Kraft, a 38-year-old computer technician from Long Beach, and discovered a dead Marine in the front seat that authorities began to piece together the homicides. Kraft’s deadly trail took investigators to Oregon and Michigan, and numerous bodies were also found in Orange County.

The officers discovered photos of other young male victims, apparently dead, under the floor mat of the car. Kraft was convicted of 16 murders in 1989, though he is suspected in dozens more. Eight of the men he killed had diazepam — commonly known as Valium — in their system, like Schlicht, prosecutors said.

Kraft’s nickname came from the list police found in the back of his car. It was a list of “notations” that prosecutors at Kraft’s trial said was a “death list,” showing each person he had killed. Prosecutors dubbed him the “Scorecard Killer.”

Kraft, 78, is still being held on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

After 49 years of not knowing Schlicht’s identity, Sheriff’s Department investigators said they were able to generate a DNA profile for their John Doe victim by submitting tissue samples to a forensic biotechnology company.

Once they had the profile, sheriff’s investigators uploaded the DNA to a “law enforcement-approved genealogy database” and began building a family tree of the victim.

After months of researching, investigators connected the man’s DNA to people believed to be his grandparents. When they contacted a granddaughter of the potential grandparents, the woman told investigators she had not seen her brother since 1974 — the year the man was killed.

Close to their answer, investigators then received a DNA sample from a woman they believed to be their victim’s mother. It was a match and they were able to identify the dead 17-year-old as Schlicht.

A relative of Schlicht declined to comment to The Times on his identification.

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Noah Goldberg

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November 29, 2023
Son of Hollywood exec tried to get day laborers to move body parts, officials say

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The son of a Hollywood executive first tried to get day laborers to remove bags from his Tarzana home with what they realized were body parts and, when that failed, he was caught on video dumping them out of the back of his Tesla in Encino, authorities said.

Samuel Bond Haskell IV is slated to be charged Monday afternoon after being behind bars on suspicion of murder following the gruesome discovery of dismembered body parts last Wednesday. Los Angeles police investigators say those remains are likely those of his wife, Mei Haskell, and both his in-laws remain missing.

LAPD Robbery Homicide Division detectives arrested Haskell after working through the weekend, gathering evidence from his home at the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana and around the Encino dumpster at a strip mall where a man found a suitcase with fresh human remains. Investigators found evidence of body disposal inside the home and brought a dog that tracks human remains to check the surrounding area.

Haskell tried last Tuesday to pay day laborers $500 to take away bags he first said were full of rocks, and then said were Halloween decorations, the workers told a reporter for NBC4. But the day laborers told NBC4 the contents felt like meat inside. “When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren’t rocks,” one of the workers said in Spanish.

The men described the bags as soft and soggy, weighing about 50 pounds. They stopped their truck a block away, checked inside and saw human remains, identifying a belly button. They returned the remains and reported the discovery first to CHP and then to the LAPD. But the bags were gone when authorities went to check it out, police said.

Haskell was then apparently captured on security cameras opposite an Encino strip mall. The video obtained by Fox News shows a man hauling a large and seemingly heavy sack over his shoulder from the back of his Tesla at about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday and dumping it into a trash bin.

An unhoused man Wednesday morning found a human torso stuffed into a duffel and thrown in a trash bin in a parking lot near Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue — about five miles away from Haskell’s home, police said.

LAPD Capt. Scot Williams of the Robbery-Homicide Division said the torso is assumed to be that of Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell, who has not been located. But forensics will be needed to confirm the identity.

Haskell, his wife and her parents, Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshen Li, all lived in a single-story home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana. The couple’s three children were in school the day their father was arrested, authorities said.

Williams said detectives will present a criminal investigation to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office Monday afternoon for filing. None of the missing persons have been located.

LAPD Det. Efren Gutierrez told reporters last week that efforts to reach Mei Haskell’s parents had yielded no results. “They would normally be home in these hours, and attempts have been made to contact them by phone, by cellphone, and no answer. And the same with Mei. She is unaccounted for.”

Inside Haskell’s house, detectives discovered blood and other evidence consistent with killing and dismemberment, according to investigators.

Haskell is being held in lieu of $2 million bail.

Court records show that in December 2008, Haskell was arrested and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded no contest to battery and was placed on probation in 2010.

Records show that Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell, the former executive vice president and worldwide head of television for William Morris who represented a slew of A-list stars and is still listed as head of Magnolia Hill Productions, which has produced several specials featuring Dolly Parton.

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Richard Winton

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November 13, 2023
A 1-year-old boy died of severe burns. Were warning signs of abuse ignored?

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The injuries to little Henry Wheatley Brown were horrific.

The 1-year-old had suffered burns that his mother, Samantha Garver, and her boyfriend, Sergio Mena, told authorities were the result of him being left in a hot bath. Garver said the baby had been fine just 40 minutes before paramedics arrived Oct. 1 at their home in Sugarloaf, near Big Bear.

But paramedics found Henry cold to the touch. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A trove of investigative records released to The Times revealed a troubling history of allegations of child abuse and neglect stretching back more than a decade against Garver, 33, including another case involving burns to one of her other children in 2013. Garver had four children; Henry was the youngest.

The San Bernardino County Department of Children and Family Services did not provide comment regarding the documents.

Both Mena and Garver told authorities that Garver was not home at the time Henry suffered his fatal injuries — second-degree burns from his shins down to his feet as well as “isolated” second-degree burns on his genitals consistent with having been “dipped in hot water,” according to an investigation by San Bernardino County Department of Children and Family Services.

But even if the doomed baby’s mother was not home, an investigation released to The Times by CFS found that she did little to save her child.

“The mother allowed the child to suffer for several hours before he eventually died,” according to the report, submitted October 25.

For more than a decade, police and child services investigators repeatedly responded to calls for service to Garver’s home, though it was not clear what exactly was done to ensure the safety of her children.

The records documenting the visits and investigations were released to The Times by San Bernardino’s Department of Children and Family Services following a request for information about the death of Henry. While all the names in the report released to The Times were redacted, the facts in the allegations line up with public information released in the case of Garver and Mena. The victim, referred to only as H, is Henry.

“The investigation conducted by San Bernardino County Children and Family Services regarding the aforementioned decedent is complete. A determination has been made that abuse or neglect led to the child’s death,” said Jeany Zepeda, director of San Bernardino CFS in an emailed statement that names Henry.

Garver has been on the radar of San Bernardino County Children and Family Services — with some gaps — since 2009, when she was first reported for general neglect, the records show.

She was reported again in 2010, when she told a doctor she had “felt like putting a pillow over” one of her children’s faces because the child “wouldn’t stop crying.” Another report was filed against Garver in 2013, investigative documents show.

After Henry’s birth, Garver was reported again, and an investigator found on Aug. 19, 2022, that her children were at “high risk” of abuse and neglect, records show. Despite that, another investigator found that the children were “safe.”

“No safety threats are present,” the investigator wrote in the same report.

Henry’s grandmother, Sierra Rivers, told The Times she was the one who reported Garver to authorities.

“I called after Henry was born. I was not convinced” he was safe, Rivers said.

Rivers had been concerned about Garver’s children ever since she saw Garver slap one of her other kids hard in the face, she said.

But when she confronted Garver about the slap, Rivers said, Garver was not remorseful.

“I got abused as a kid and I got hit as a baby, and I turned out fine,’” Rivers recalled Garver telling her.

In 2013, a person reported Garver to Children and Family Services after she posted troubling comments in a Facebook group chat that was meant for people to ask and debate questions, according to investigative documents.

The person who ran the Facebook page said Garver posted on Jan. 10, 2013, asking whether “duct taping a child’s mouth is abusive,” the report says. At the time, Garver had an 8-month-old baby as well as two older toddlers, according to investigative documents.

A few weeks later, Garver posted on the Facebook page again saying that a friend of hers was watching one of her babies while she went to the store and that when Garver returned home, the baby was suffering from “blistered burns on her thighs.”

Garver posted that she was scared of CFS and did not want to take her daughter to the hospital out of fear that the burns would be reported to the agency, according to the party who reported her.

On Jan. 31, 2013, authorities conducted a wellness check based on a report about the burns to the daughter, according to documents that don’t identify the source of the report.

Garver told investigators that the baby suffered the burns after getting “stuck between the wall and a heater,” according to the documents.

The child was hospitalized but child service investigators found another sickening scene at the home.

There was “fecal matter all over the bedroom that the children sleep in and it appears as though it has been there for quite some time. There are also roaches all over the place. Mother will not be arrested but she will be charged with felony child neglect,” wrote an investigator with CFS in a report.

Garver was charged that day with felony willful cruelty to a child with possible injury or death. The charges were dismissed, and she later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of misdemeanor willful cruelty to a child, according to court documents. It was not clear whether she admitted to burning the child.

She was sentenced to 100 days in jail, but she failed to turn herself in that July and was listed as a fugitive by a judge, court documents show.

Garver and her boyfriend Mena, 32, have both been charged with murder and child abuse in connection with Henry’s death.

Both told child welfare investigators that Garver was not home when Henry suffered his fatal burns. Garver told investigators that Mena was using methamphetamine at the time of the burns, but he did not admit to the CFS investigators to purposefully injuring the baby.

Investigators also found that Henry had other injuries that had gone untreated and unreported — a dislocated arm and marks and bruises on his face, according to investigative documents.

“The mother failed to seek medical attention for previous injuries that are indicative of possible physical abuse that occurred,” the investigator wrote.

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Noah Goldberg

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November 11, 2023
L.A. County coroner investigator charged with thefts of necklace and rare coins from bodies

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An investigator with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has been charged with stealing a gold necklace and rare coins from two dead people while on the job.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that Adrian Muñoz, 34, has been charged with one felony count of grand theft and one misdemeanor count of petty theft. Muñoz had been with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner since 2018, according to the county’s salary database.

Prosecutors said Muñoz stole a gold crucifix necklace off the body of a warehouse worker who died of a heart attack on the job this January. After the family reported the theft, investigators searched Muñoz’s desk and found antique coins along with a receipt that belonged to a man whose death he had investigated in November of last year.

Kristopher Gay, the deputy district attorney handling the case, said an investigation is still ongoing and it’s possible more alleged thefts could come to light.

“He’s been involved in many cases,” he said at a news conference announcing the charge. “How many potential victims there could be I can’t say.”

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odey Ukpo said he was “very disappointed” and had suspended Muñoz Tuesday.

“We rely on the trust of the community,” he said. “Certainly, this will have shaken that trust.”

The suspension comes roughly 11 months after the family of one of the victims, Miguel Solorio, said they first asked the medical examiner’s office about the loss of the necklace.

Solorio had been a roughly 10-year employee of Hylands, working in a warehouse where homeopathic products were loaded, unloaded, managed and shipped.

An employee of Hylands, who asked for anonymity to talk about their employer citing fear of retribution, told The Times that Muñoz had been called to take care of Solorio’s body. According to the employee, a security camera at the warehouse caught Muñoz removing the necklace from the body, placing it in a glove and then slipping it into his medical bag. The footage also showed Muñoz taking cash from the front pocket of the man’s pants and, again, slipping it into a glove in his medical bag.

Rosalba Solorio, Miguel’s daughter-in-law, who also worked at Hylands, said a representative of the district attorney’s office had called the family to tell them that Muñoz had been arrested.

“We’re happy the investigation didn’t just fall through the cracks,” she said. “They actually did something about it and hopefully we’ll see justice for my father-in-law.”

She said her father-in-law had worn the distinctive gold necklace for a few decades.

“Everybody knew he had it — he was recognized for it,” she said of the cross, which she said had more sentimental value than monetary value.

She said losing Solorio had broken her husband and mother-in-law.

“Finding out what happened with the chain was insult to injury,” she said. “Somebody who should be helping the family did this, and it’s just unexplainable.”

Solorio said her father-in-law often carried cash with him as well. When the family inquired as to what happened to the necklace and the cash, they were told that nothing was found on the body. She said they were later told the necklace was available, but when her husband and mother-in-law went to retrieve it at the medical examiner’s office, the necklace they were handed was not Solorio’s.

She said the necklace has still not been returned to them.

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Rebecca Ellis, Steve Lopez

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November 8, 2023
Driver sped at 104 mph in Malibu crash that killed 4 Pepperdine students, D.A. says

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The driver accused of killing four Pepperdine students in a Malibu crash last week was charged with murder, with prosecutors saying he was speeding at 104 mph before the fatal collision.

Fraser Michael Bohm, 22, faces four counts of malice murder and four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said during a Wednesday news conference, adding that the charges stem from Bohm’s “complete disregard for the life of others.”

“When you are driving at 104 mph in [a] 45-mph [zone], the only conclusion is you have a complete disregard for life,” Gascón said.

The four people killed — Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams — were sisters in the Alpha Phi sorority and seniors at Pepperdine University. Authorities believe they were standing near several parked vehicles in the 21600 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when Bohm’s speeding BMW barreled into the cars and then struck the women shortly before 9 p.m. Oct. 17.

Bohm was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence following the crash, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Maria Navarro said. But he was released hours later. In a news release at the time, the Sheriff’s Department said he was “released to allow detectives time to gather the evidence needed to secure the strongest criminal filing and conviction.”

Bohm was re-arrested Tuesday night and booked on suspicion of four counts of murder. In the intervening days between arrests, investigators collected additional evidence — including toxicology results, search warrants and speed analyses — before submitting the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Monday.

Investigators determined that Bohm was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, but the onboard computer of his car shows he was traveling at 104 mph before he lost control in the deadly collision, according to law enforcement sources not authorized to discuss the case publicly. It was that data, along with statements by Bohm that he was familiar with the stretch of PCH and that he was aware of the posted 45-mph speed limit, that led to the charges against him, sources say.

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Richard Winton, Jeremy Childs

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October 25, 2023
Off-duty pilot may have been on psychedelic mushrooms when he tried to shut off plane engines, official says

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The FBI is investigating whether an off-duty pilot who tried to shut down the engines of an in-flight jetliner on Sunday was on psychedelic mushrooms, an official told The Times.

Federal prosecutors in Oregon have charged Joseph Emerson, 44, with interference with flight crew members and attendants. Emerson was arrested after pilots and crew members detained him Sunday following an outburst in the cockpit during a Horizon Airlines flight from Seattle that was headed to San Francisco. Horizon Airlines is a regional carrier owned by the parent company that owns Alaska Airlines.

In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, an FBI agent revealed that Emerson told investigators about his use of psychedelic mushrooms and said “it was his first time taking mushrooms.”

But FBI officials declined to confirm that Emerson had taken mushrooms at the time of the midair incident.

“It is vague in [the complaint], but that is part of what [the] FBI is investigating,” said Joy Jiras, an FBI Portland field office spokesperson. “The FBI is investigating the timeline of his use of magic mushrooms. We are trying to figure out whether he was on them that day or whether they were in his system or not.”

Emerson had been flying in the “jump seat,” a foldout seat usually placed behind the captain’s seat, according to experts.

“I am not OK,” Emerson said during the flight, after he had been casually engaging the two pilots in conversation, a federal agent said in the complaint.

Both pilots then saw Emerson grab onto the red fire handles, which are used to extinguish engine fires and shut down all fuel to the engines, potentially turning the plane into a glider, the pilots told federal investigators.

One pilot struggled with Emerson for about 25 or 30 seconds before the off-duty pilot “quickly settled down,” according to the complaint.

The other pilot saw Emerson throw his headset across the cockpit before saying he was not OK.

The pilots said the interaction with Emerson lasted about 90 seconds before they were able to remove him and secure the cockpit, the complaint said.

Flight attendants then saw Emerson “peacefully walking to the back of the aircraft,” the complaint said. They had received a call from the pilots saying that Emerson was “losing it,” and he told one attendant that he “just got kicked out of the flight deck,” according to investigators.

“You need to cuff me right now, or it’s going to be bad,” he told the attendant.

He was cuffed and seated in the back of the plane, according to the complaint, where he tried to grab the handle of an emergency exit before he was stopped by a crew member.

Another crew member said that Emerson made statements about how “he tried to kill everybody,” the complaint said.

“The flight attendant noticed Emerson take out his cellular phone and appeared to be texting on the phone. Emerson was heard saying he had just put 84 peoples’ lives at risk tonight including his own,” FBI Agent Tapara Simmons wrote in the complaint.

After the plane made an emergency landing in Portland, Ore., Emerson was detained. He told police he had become depressed six months ago, according to the complaint.

He talked with the officer about “the use of psychedelic mushrooms” and said “it was his first time taking mushrooms.”

“I’m admitting to what I did. I’m not fighting any charges you want to bring against me, guys,” he told police, according to the complaint.

Emerson was booked by police in Multnomah County on suspicion of 83 counts of attempted murder. It was not clear whether the state case would continue in light of federal charges.

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Noah Goldberg

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October 24, 2023
LAUSD teacher arrested on suspicion of sharing child pornography

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A Los Angeles Unified School teacher was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sharing child pornography with a county government worker, authorities said.

Detectives with the San Bernardino Police Department arrested Rene Gregorio Estrella on the 210 Freeway around 6:30 a.m. on suspicion of distributing and receiving child pornography. Estrella, 60, is a teacher at the School of Business and Tourism at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, according to the school’s website.

Investigators said Estrella exchanged multiple images of child pornography with 62-year-old Steven Frasher, who worked as a public information officer with the Los Angeles County Public Works Department.

Investigators with the San Bernardino Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Specialized Crimes Unit served search and arrest warrants on Estrella at a residence in Claremont and a second location in the city of Los Angeles. Police found several electronic devices that were taken as part of their investigation, according a news release from the police department.

In a statement, the Los Angeles Unified School District said it was notified about an employee’s arrest by San Bernardino police, but it did not name Estrella. Officials said the employee will be blocked from entering any LAUSD sites.

“All District protocols are being followed, and we remain in cooperation with local authorities,” the statement said. “Due to the ongoing investigation by law enforcement, we are unable to disclose additional details about this matter. Please be assured that the safety of our students continues to be our utmost priority. Students and the greater school community are always encouraged to share any and all concerns with their school or with local authorities.”

Jail records show that Estrella was booked into custody on Wednesday but released later that day.

Frasher, a resident of Redlands, was arrested Oct. 3 after investigators received a tip indicating that he was downloading illicit child porn on the internet and saving it in an internet storage account, police said.

Frasher, a candidate for the Redlands City Council in 2020, worked for the Riverside Police Department as a public information officer and also served as a public information officer for the Glendale Unified School District.

The San Bernardino Police Department posted a video on its Instagram account of Frasher’s arrest, showing officers entering and searching his home. The video also shows Frasher being led away in handcuffs.

Times staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this story.

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Nathan Solis

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October 19, 2023