A sentencing decision in the Provincial Court of British Columbia this month revealed the graphic details of a 2024 attack in which the victims were bound, waterboarded, and sexually assaulted—all in an effort to steal the family’s Bitcoin holdings.
The “wrench attack,” or physical attack in which an assailant attempts to gain access to a victim’s cryptocurrency, took place on April 27-28, 2024.
During the home invasion, four men unlawfully entered the victims’ home, first gaining access when two of the men dressed as Canadian Post workers sought a signature for a fake package.
After entering the home, the men then closed the door behind them, and were later joined by two others. Once inside, the victims—a husband, wife, and daughter—were restrained with zip ties.
They were then threatened and beaten as the assailants sought to gain access to the father’s cryptocurrency. As they attempted to access his funds, they forced the daughter to remove her clothes, exposing her genitalia as they recorded multiple videos. She was instructed to say explicit phrases, and was physically assaulted by one of the crew.
The men also waterboarded the husband and wife, and threatened to cut off the husband’s genitals if he did not provide them with the access to his funds.
The man had reportedly boasted about his success with crypto investments within the Chinese community of British Columbia leading the crew to initially seek 200 Bitcoin—currently valued at around $17.8 million—during their attack. Later, they lowered their demand to 100 BTC, but ultimately made away with much less, nearly draining the crypto accounts of the victims and making off with around $1.6 million in total.
After being tied up and wrapped in a blanket, eventually the daughter heard a door close and partially freed herself before fleeing the residence and calling 911.
In May of this year, one of the four crew members, Tsz Wing Boaz Chan, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, unlawfully confining the victims, and sexual assault. This month, Chan was sentenced to seven years in jail for his role in the crime.
Wrench attacks are on the rise this year, nearly doubling last year’s mark according to a recorded count by Jameson Lopp, the co-founder and chief security officer at self-custody crypto wallet platform, Casa.
Lopp’s database, which extends back to 2014, now counts 60 documented incidents in 2025 alone.
This weekend, a man posing as a delivery driver robbed a San Francisco home owner of $11 million worth of crypto. And on Sunday, a Chinese victim had $10,000 stolen after an alleged kidnapping and robbery in Thailand.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia plans to ban social media accounts for people under 16 starting in 2026, joining Australia and a growing number of countries pushing tighter digital age limits for children.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said Sunday the Cabinet approved the move as part of a broader effort to shield young people from online harm like cyberbullying, scams and sexual exploitation. He said the government is studying approaches taken by Australia and other countries, and the potential use of electronic checks with identity cards or passports to verify users’ ages. He did not say when exactly the ban will be enforced.
“I believe that if the government, regulatory bodies, and parents all play their roles, we can ensure that the Internet in Malaysia is not only fast, widespread and affordable but most importantly, safe, especially for children and families,” he said.
Since January, major social media and messaging platforms with at least 8 million users in Malaysia are required to obtain a licence as part of a broader tightening of state oversight over digital platforms. Licensed platforms must implement age verification, content-safety measures and transparency rules, reflecting the government’s push for a safer digital space.
Australia’s parliament enacted the world’s first ban on social media for children that will begin Dec. 10, setting the minimum age at 16. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube as well as message board Reddit and livestreaming service Kick face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.
Australia’s move is being closely watched by countries that share concerns about social media impacts on young children.
Denmark’s government also announced earlier this month plans to ban access to social media for anyone under 15, though details on how the measures would be enforced remain unclear. Norway is also moving forward with a proposed law that would set a minimum age limit of 15 for accessing social media platforms.
The defamed actor hopped on X (Twitter) on Sunday to address the rumor he’s homeless after claiming he’s been “living in hotels” and “Airbnbs” in the wake of his sexual assault scandal. During an interview with The Telegraph published earlier this week, Kevin claimed all his belongings are “in storage” and said his financial situation is “not great.” Seemingly hinting at his mountain of legal fees, he confessed “costs over these last seven years have been astronomical. I’ve had very little coming in and everything going out.”
As we know, Kevin was accused of sexual assault by numerous victims over the past seven years. He was found not liable for assaulting actor Anthony Rapp in a 2022 lawsuit, and was acquitted of nine other charges in a UK trial the following year.
In his message on Sunday, the House of Cards alum blamed “the media” for manipulating his words and told followers:
“To the thousands of people who have reached out over the past few days offering me a place to stay, or have just asked if I’m OK, to all of you, let me first say I am truly touched by your generosity, full stop. But I feel it would be disingenuous of me to allow you to believe that I am indeed homeless in the colloquial sense.”
The Baby Driver star went on to clarify his comment about living in hotels and Airbnbs as he’s been “going where the work is,” much like he did “when [he] first started out.”
“I’ve been working nearly nonstop this entire year, and for that I have so much to be grateful for.”
He went on:
“There are many people, as we know, who are indeed actually living on the streets, or in their cars, or in terrible financial situations, and my heart goes out to them. But it is clear from the article itself that I am not one of them, nor was I attempting to say that I was.”
The Seven star criticized the outlet for running a “knowingly misleading headline for the sake of clicks,” before thanking fans for “all the kindness” they’ve shown him.
You can hear him talk more about the situation (below):
For Marina Lacerda, the upcoming publication of U.S. government files on Jeffrey Epstein represent more than an opportunity for justice: Lacerda says she was just 14 when Epstein started sexually abusing her at his New York mansion, but she struggles to recall much of what happened because it is such a dark period in her life.
Now, she’s hoping that the files will reveal more about the trauma that distorted so much of her adolescence.
“I feel that the government and the FBI knows more than I do, and that scares me, because it’s my life, it’s my past,” she told The Associated Press.
“We have waited long enough. We’ve fought long enough,” Lacerda said.
It isn’t clear yet how much new information will be in the files, gathered over two decades of investigations into Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of many girls and women.
Some of his accusers expect the files to provide a level of transparency they had hardly allowed themselves to believe would materialize, but the release of the documents will be a more complicated moment for others.
The FBI and police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein in the mid-2000s after several underage girls said he had paid them for sex acts. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges including procuring a minor for prostitution, but a secret deal with the U.S. attorney in Florida allowed him to avoid a federal prosecution. He served little more than a year in custody.
Jena-Lisa Jones says she was abused by Epstein in Palm Beach, in 2002, when she was 14. She did not report the abuse to the police at the time, but she later became one of many accusers to sue the multimillionaire.
The Miami Herald published a series of articles about Epstein in 2018 that exposed new details about how the federal prosecution was shelved. A year later, federal prosecutors in New York, where Epstein owned a mansion, revived the case and charged him with sex-trafficking
Jones said she was interviewed during that federal investigation and was prepared to testify in court.
“It was very important for me to have my moment, for him to see my face and hear my words, and me have that control and power back,” Jones said.
But that day never came.
Epstein killed himself in a federal jail cell in New York City in August 2019.
In lieu of her day in court, Jones and others are hoping for a public reckoning with the publication of the government files on Epstein.
While the government only ever charged two people — Epstein and his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell — in connection with the alleged abuse, at least one of Epstein’s accusers has claimed she was instructed to have sex with other rich and powerful men.
Jones didn’t make similar claims but said she believes the documents could map out a “broad scheme” involving others.
“I’m hoping they’re shaking a little bit and that they have what’s coming for them,” Jones said.
Lacerda, now 37, is also hoping the files will clarify her own personal experience, which is muddled by the pain she said she endured at that time in her life.
“I was just a child and it’s just trauma. That’s what trauma does to your brain,” Lacerda said.
An immigrant from Brazil, Lacerda said she was working three jobs to support herself and her family the summer before 9th grade when a friend said she could make $300 if she gave Epstein massages.
The first time she massaged Epstein, he told her to remove her shirt, she said.
Lacerda said she was soon spending so much time working for Epstein that she dropped out of school. The sexual abuse persisted until she turned 17, when Epstein informed her that she was “too old,” she said.
Lacerda wondered whether the files might include videos and photographs of her and other victims at Epstein’s properties.
“I need to know — for my healing process and for the adult in me — what I did as a child,” Lacerda said. “It will be re-traumatizing, but it’s transparency — and I need it,” she said.
For Lacerda, the elation around the upcoming release of the files gave way to familiar feelings for many women who survive abuse: fear and paranoia.
“In the heat of the moment, we were like, ‘wow, this is like, everything that we’ve been fighting for.’ And then we had to take a moment and be like, ‘Wait a minute. Why is he releasing the files all of a sudden?’” Lacerda said.
The abrupt change in the political momentum made her uneasy. She wondered if the documents would be doctored or redacted to protect people connected to Epstein.
Others echoed her concerns, and wondered if the government would sufficiently protect victims who have remained anonymous, who fear scrutiny and harassment if their names were to become public.
“For the rest of my life, I will never truly trust the government because of what they’ve done to us,” Jones said.
Haley Robson, who says she was abused by Epstein when she was 16, has the same concerns.
Robson was a leading voice in advocating for the Florida legislation signed in 2024 that unsealed the grand jury transcripts from the 2006 state case against Epstein.
She said the political maneuvering in recent months about the files led to non-stop anxiety — reminiscent of how she felt when she was abused as a teenager.
“I guess it really comes from the trauma I’ve endured, because this is kind of what Jeffrey Epstein did to us. You know, he wasn’t transparent. He played these manipulation tactics,” she said. “It’s triggering for anybody who’s been in that situation.”
Still, Robson said she is trying to enjoy the victory while she can.
“This is the first time since 2006 where I don’t feel like the underdog,” she said.
DALLAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors say two Texas men plotted to take over a Haitian island, one going so far as joining the U.S. military to acquire training for an armed attack, with the goal of killing all the men and using the women and children for sex.
Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, who are from the Dallas area, were indicted Thursday on charges of conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Texas. They were also charged with production of child pornography over allegations they persuaded a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
Attorneys for both men said Friday they will enter not guilty pleas.
“They never tried to do any of this,” said John Helms, who is Thomas’ attorney.
An indictment filed in a Texas federal court accuses the men of planning to recruit the homeless to join their coup in Haiti, buy a sailboat and seize power on Gonave Island, which has about 87,000 residents. It covers roughly 290 square miles (751 square kilometers) square miles and is the largest island surrounding Hispaniola.
Helms said that while he has not yet seen the government’s evidence, he thinks prosecutors “are going to have a real hard time” trying to prove that Weisenburg and Thomas actually intended to carry out such a plot.
David Finn, Weisenburg’s attorney, said he encourages everyone to “tap the breaks” and reserve judgment. He said people have been telling him it is “the craziest thing” they have heard, and his response has been: “Yeah, it is.”
According to the indictment, the two men worked on the plot from August 2024 through July and that preparations included researching weapons and ammunition and plans to buy military-type rifles. Prosecutors also allege that both men tried to learn the Haitian Creole language.
Weisenburg allegedly enrolled in a fire academy around Dallas to receive training that would be useful in the attack but failed out of the school. He then allegedly traveled to Thailand and planned to learn to sail, only to never end up enrolling in lessons because of the cost.
Thomas enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in January, according to the indictment, and told Weisenburg in a social media message that he had joined the military to further their planned attack. While in the Air Force, Thomas changed his assignment to Andrews Air Base in Maryland to help in the recruiting of homeless people in Washington, D.C., the indictment said.
The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations was among the investigating agencies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Air Force did not immediately respond to an inquiry about Thomas’ service on Friday.
The men face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the child pornography charge and up to life in prison if convicted on the conspiracy charge.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Cpl. Jonathan Monge was named in the criminal indictment, according to a press release from the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara Jackson’s office.
A Hyattsville Police Department corporal was arrested and charged Thursday after a Maryland grand jury indictment accused him of raping and sexually abusing a child.
Cpl. Jonathan Monge has been charged with sexual abuse against a minor, second-degree rape and sex offense in the third and fourth degree, according to a news release from Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Tara Jackson’s office.
Because of the age of the person who Monge is accused of abusing, and the sensitive nature of the allegations, Jackson’s office said no further information would be made immediately available.
According to a news release from the City of Hyattsville Police Department, Monge was indicted on Tuesday.
“The Department takes these charges extremely seriously and is fully cooperating with the Office of the State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County,” a statement from the police department reads. “The Hyattsville Police Department is also conducting a separate internal administrative investigation.”
Monge has been a member of the Hyattsville Police Department for five years and has been placed on administrative leave without pay, police officials said.
The police department said the investigation is active and ongoing.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
The women filed a new motion in court on Nov. 14 to amend their complaint and add the two new accusers, referred to as John Doe 1 and Jane Doe 5, according to the motion obtained by People and The Guardian.
The two alleged victims, a man and a woman, both claim that Robinson tried to force them to touch him inappropriately.
In a statement shared with the outlet, Robinson’s lawyer Christopher Frost denied the new allegations and referred to the lawsuit as an “organized avaricious campaign to extract money from an 85-year-old legend.”
Story continues below advertisement
“This group of people, who hide behind anonymity, and their attorneys seek global publicity while making the ugliest of false allegations. Once the public can see the truth, their avaricious motives and fabricated claims will be revealed,” Frost added.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Jane Doe 5 alleged that she endured “constant” harassment from Robinson while working as a housekeeper for him on and off between 2005 and 2011, according to the motion.
She also alleged that he would ask her to enter the bathroom while he was showering and ask her to scrub his back.
John Doe 1 claims that he began working for Robinson and his wife, Frances Gladney, doing detail work on their cars in 2013. He alleged that shortly after he began working for the family, Robinson began sexually harassing him and approached John Doe 1 while he was working, wearing only underwear and allegedly inappropriately touching himself.
John Doe claims that he was fired after the incident but said Gladney asked him to return to work a year later. He said he did return but alleged that the harassment continued, which he claimed caused him “humiliation, emotional distress and ongoing fear for his safety and dignity,” according to the new legal docs.
All of the accusers said they eventually quit over the assaults, and all said they feared coming forward over fears of retaliation, public shame and possible effects on their immigration status.
Story continues below advertisement
The allegations from the two new alleged victims “mirror, both in substance and scope, those already set forth by Jane Does 1-4, and largely concern the same time periods, locations, and conduct by the same defendants,” the motion claims.
It also asks the court to allow the plaintiffs to file the amended complaint and a hearing on the motion is set for Jan. 6, 2026.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions.
A male music producer and publicist said he was asked to come to a photo shoot in 2020 at a Los Angeles warehouse, where Combs exposed himself while masturbating and told the accuser to assist, according to NBC News, citing a police report. Combs then tossed a dirty shirt at the man, the producer said.
The accuser, whose name is redacted in the police report, said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. He came forward to police in Largo, Florida, this September, shortly after Combs was convicted on other charges.
Combs’ lawyer did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the latest allegations.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it received an official copy of the report from the Florida department on Friday, and will be investigating the allegations.
The report also details an incident from March 2021 in which the accuser claims two men covered his head before Combs came into the room and called him a snitch, according to NBC.
Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters in multiple places over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life.
He is set to be released in May 2028, though he can earn reductions in his time behind bars through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs.
LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson filed a petition Monday for his two rape convictions and long prison sentence to be thrown out, saying that his trial lawyer failed to call key witnesses and introduce essential evidence that might have exonerated him.
The petition for habeas corpus filed with California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal argues that lawyer Philip Cohen did not represent Masterson properly at the 2023 retrial that ended with the actor being convicted of raping two women at his Los Angeles home in 2003. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
The petition also argues that the trial judge demonstrated a bias against the Church of Scientology, allowing an “unconstitutional intrusion” into the church’s doctrine and a misinterpretation of its scripture.
Masterson is a member of the church, whose practices were a major issue at his trial, and the women are former members.
The petition says that Cohen spoke to only two of the 20 potential witnesses brought to his attention by his co-counsel and an investigator. It says the witnesses included some who would have testified that the women spoke favorably of the sexual relationships they had with Masterson. And they included psychological and pharmacological experts who would have testified about the effects of alcohol and drugs on memory.
The court filing says there was “unexpected and unreasonable failure of trial counsel to present any of the mountain of exculpatory evidence” that had been amassed by Masterson’s pretrial attorney Shawn Holley, and the result was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo declined to delay Masterson’s first trial to accommodate Holley’s representation of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer against his own allegations of sexual misconduct. Cohen then took over as lead attorney.
Masterson’s first trial ended in a mistrial with a jury unable to reach consensus on any of three rape counts against him. He was promptly retried, and a jury found him guilty of two counts while failing to reach a verdict on the third.
Cohen did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the petition, nor did an attorney for the women.
“The unfairness of the second Masterson trial was the result of prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias, and the failure of defense counsel to present exculpatory evidence,” Eric Multhaup, the attorney who filed the petition for Masterson, said in a statement. “The jury heard only half the story – the prosecution’s side. Danny deserves a new trial where the jury can hear his side as well.”
The petition says Olmedo erred in allowing the prosecution to negatively cast the Church of Scientology as a force of intimidation. It alleges that Cohen also did not present available evidence that would countered the portrayal.
Masterson’s new motion is separate from his main appeal to the same court, a process that is pending.
Masterson, 49, is serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. He will not be eligible for parole for more than 20 years.
Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 until 2006. He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (WLS) — A Willowbrook man has been charged with trying to sexually assault a woman and grabbing three others in the south and west suburbs, officials said.
Kwame Koranteng, 31, is charged with one count of Attempt Criminal Sexual Assault, two counts of Aggravated Battery in a Public Place, two counts of Aggravated Battery – Person Over Sixty and one count of Criminal Sexual Abuse, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office said.
Officials said the first call came in last Friday around 3 p.m.
A woman was walking on Brookbank Road in Downers Grove when Koranteng allegedly got out of his parked vehicle, ran up from behind, and passed her. He then allegedly turned around, walked past the woman and grabbed her buttocks while asking if “she can have sex.” He then fled the scene in a Toyota Corola.
The next call came in from Hinsdale on Monday around 2:45 p.m.
The alleged victim was walking with a 6-month-old child on a path on 59th Street. When she briefly stopped, she allegedly felt Koranteng grab her buttocks from behind with both hands. When she turned around, Koranteng allegedly reached down and touched the victim’s genitals over her clothes. When the victim screamed for help, he fled the scene.
The third report came in from Darien on Friday around 10:15 p.m. A woman reported that Koranteng followed her into the lobby of her apartment building and grabbed her buttocks before leaving.
After authorities identified Koranteng as a suspect in these cases, officers witnessed another alleged assault while conducting surveillance on him.
It happened on Friday in the 7300-block of Fairmount Avenue in Downers Grove.
Koranteng allegedly got out of his vehicle and approached a woman who was with her grandchild. While the grandmother was bending over to pick the child up, Koranteng allegedly grabbed her buttocks from behind and tried to wrap his arms around her. When the woman pushed him away, Koranteng fled back to his vehicle, where officers arrested him.
A judge ordered Koranteng, of the 400-block of Ridgemoor Drive, detained ahead of his trial on Saturday morning. He is due back in court on Dec. 8.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A district attorney based in Salt Lake City is declining to file charges against the founder of an anti-child-trafficking organization — made famous by the 2023 movie “Sound of Freedom” — in the wake of sexual assault claims by several women in lawsuits.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill issued a statement Friday saying there is “insufficient admissible evidence” and his office has declined to file charges against Tim Ballard in connection with the allegations.
“It does not mean that we disbelieve or diminish a survivor’s account, but rather that the law requires evidence strong enough to remove every reasonable doubt for a jury,” Gill said in the statement.
In two lawsuits, women have accused Ballard of exploiting his position as founder of Operation Underground Railroad and their desire to help combat child trafficking to abuse them.
Ballard has denied any wrongdoing and allegations in the lawsuits. Attorneys for Ballard could not immediately be reached for comment.
He resigned from Operation Underground Railroad amid the sexual assault allegations.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
PHOENIX — An Arizona man who fled the United States years ago while on probation for sex crime convictions was arrested earlier this month in France, where he was charged with sexually assaulting a child, authorities said.
Michael Robert Wiseman, 51, was living in Kilstett in northeastern France when he arrested Nov. 1. Investigators discovered Wiseman had traveled to Vietnam and Poland before settling in France.
Scottsdale police Sgt. Dustin Patrick told Phoenix television station 12News that Wiseman was captured after he tried applying for a pilot’s license in Spain using his real name. Patrick said investigators discovered that Wiseman had adopted two children in Vietnam and had obtained a legitimate Polish passport under an alias.
“His potential employer Googled his name and found that he was on Scottsdale’s most wanted list and called Spain authorities,” Patrick said.
It was the second time Wiseman fled the U.S. while his 2008 Arizona case hung over his head.
While his charges were still pending, Wiseman cut off his ankle monitoring device and left the country in late 2008. The fugitive was arrested in 2009 in Spain, brought back to Arizona and pleaded guilty in metro Phoenix to three counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one escape charge.
The charges stemmed from child sexual abuse material found on his computer.
In an interview with a probation employee, Wiseman said he left the country the first time after growing tired of the hardship from his wife leaving him after his 2008 arrest and his financial difficulties, according to court records.
Wiseman, who spent over two years in jail after his return from Spain, was sentenced in 2012 to lifetime probation and a one-year deferred jail sentence. The additional incarceration was later deleted by a judge in at least one of his two Arizona cases.
Then authorities say he skipped out of the United States for the second time after his 2012 sentencing.
The lawyer who last represented Wisemen in his criminal case no longer works as a public defender, and efforts to located him through a bar directory and internet search weren’t successful.
Scottsdale police say Wiseman will be extradited to the United States after his French case is completed. Arizona prosecutors say there is no timeline for when the extradition will occur.
Luis Rubiales was pelted by eggs thrown by his own uncle when the former head of Spain’s soccer federation was presenting a memoir late Thursday relating his downfall after kissing a player at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Rubiales was seated on a stool on a low stage when he jumped up and spun quickly trying to avoid three eggs hurled his way. One impacted on the back of his dark jacket, and another splattered against a screen behind him as he charged into the small audience.
“A man entered who I later saw was my uncle, who is a troubled man, and always has been,” Rubiales told reporters. “He had some eggs and threw some at me, but I didn’t know what he had in his hands, and when I first saw him I thought he might be carrying a weapon.”
Spanish media reported that the uncle was Luis Rubén Rubiales, an actor who has appeared in several domestic television shows.
Spanish police told The Associated Press they arrested the egg thrower. No motive was immediately given for the incident. A video shows a group of men in the audience grabbing the uncle immediately after he launched the eggs and escorting him away.
Luis Rubiales, on his way out of the National Court, on 12 February, 2025 in San Fernando, Madrid, Spain.
Matias Chiofalo/Europa Press via Getty Images
Rubiales also had a falling out with another uncle, Juan Rubiales, several years ago when Juan was working for him at the federation.
His book “Matar a Rubiales” (Killing Rubiales) is a 500-page version of his professional demise after kissing Spain forward Jenni Hermoso during the 2023 Women’s World Cup awards ceremony. It was the first time Spain’s women’s team took home the title. According to its publisher, Rubiales says he was the victim of a “conspiracy of different powers of Spanish public life” including the government and “the profitable world of feminism.”
Rubiales has always denied he kissed Hermoso without her consent. After initially clinging to power amid a national uproar, he stepped down under immense pressure from the government, soccer officials, women players and fans.
Earlier this year he was found guilty of sexual assault for the unsolicited kiss by a Spanish court. He was fined over $11,000 and ordered not to come within 650 feet of Hermoso or contact her for a year. Prosecutors had pushed for him to spend over two years in prison. Rubiales was acquitted of a separate charge that alleged he and other officials pressued Hermoso to support him in the aftermath of the kiss.
Hermoso testified in court that Rubiales’ actions “tarnished” what should have been “one of the happiest days” of her life.
“I’d spent years fighting to win titles for my team, like the World Cup,” she said. “But all that’s happened to me means that I just haven’t been able to enjoy any of it from the moment I set foot back in Madrid. I’m a world champion, but it seems that, even to this day, my life has been on standby. I honestly haven’t been able to live freely.”
Rubiales, 48, is also under scrutiny by Spanish authorities probing his 2020 deal to move the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia.
MADRID (AP) — Luis Rubiales was pelted by eggs thrown by his own uncle when the former head of Spain’s soccer federation was presenting a memoir late Thursday relating his downfall after kissing a player at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Rubiales was seated on a stool on a low stage when he quickly spun to avoid at least two eggs launched at him. One splattered against a screen behind him as he charged into the small audience.
“A man entered who I later saw was my uncle, who is a troubled man, and always has been,” Rubiales told reporters. “He had some eggs and threw some at me, but I didn’t know what he had in his hands, and when I first saw him I thought he might be carrying a weapon.”
According to its publisher, Rubiales says he was the victim of a “conspiracy of different powers of Spanish public life” including the government and “the profitable world of feminism.”
Rubiales has always denied he kissed Hermoso without her consent. After initially clinging to power amid a national uproar, he stepped down under immense pressure from the government, soccer officials, women players and fans.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
STARKE, Fla. — A former Marine convicted of killing a 6-year-old girl more than four decades ago is scheduled Thursday to be executed in Florida, which would be the record 16th death sentence carried out under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, is set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke. Jennings was convicted and sentenced to death twice for the 1979 murder in Brevard County, both of which were reversed on appeal. The final trial in 1986 resulted in a third death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal Wednesday.
According to court records, Jennings was a 20-year-old on leave from the Marine Corps on May 11, 1979, when he took down a screen at the bedroom window of 6-year-old Rebecca Kunash while her parents were in another room.
Jennings abducted the girl, took her in his car to a canal and raped her, trial testimony showed. He then “swung her by her legs to the ground with such force that she fractured her skull,” court records show. The girl was then drowned in the canal, where her body was found later that day.
Jennings was arrested a few hours later on a traffic warrant, where investigators found he matched the description of a man seen near the Kunash home when Rebecca disappeared. Shoe prints found at the home matched those Jennings was wearing, his fingerprints were found on the girl’s windowsill, and his clothes and hair were wet.
DeSantis has ordered more executions in a single year than any Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions. After Jennings, executions this year are scheduled Nov. 20 for Richard Barry Randolph and Dec. 9 for Mark Allen Geralds, which would bring the year’s total so far to 18.
At a recent news conference, DeSantis explained the unprecedented number of executions by saying his goal is to bring justice to victim families who have waited decades for the death sentences to be carried out.
“Some of these crimes were committed in the ’80s,” DeSantis said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly. If I honestly through someone was innocent, I would not pull the trigger.”
Jennings has filed numerous appeals in state and federal courts, most recently contending that he went months without a lawyer prior to DeSantis signing his death warrant in violation of his right to counsel. His current attorneys also say Jennings has improperly not had a clemency hearing since 1988.
An anti-capital punishment group, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, sought U.S. Supreme Court review of the issues and what it called the politicization of the process.
“Florida’s death penalty system has become unrecognizable from the one the law promises,” said Maria DeLiberato, legal and policy director for the group. “Bryan Jennings was left without a state court lawyer for years, denied a clemency review in this century, and then selected for execution because of favorable political timing.”
In addition to the murder conviction, Jennings was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary.
A total of 40 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and at least 18 other people are scheduled to be put to death during the remainder of 2025 and next year.
Florida’s lethal injections are carried out with a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.
A House committee released 23,000 documents related to Jefferey Epstein on Wednesday, many of them emails the convicted sex offender sent to his rich or influential friends, or to reporters, over many years.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee initially released three emails where Epstein mentioned President Donald Trump. Republicans on the committee responded by disclosing the bigger trove of documents and accused the Democrats of cherry-picking a few messages out of context in an effort to make Trump look bad.
Epstein served about a year in jail after pleading guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18 but then went on to renew relationships with many influential figures in business, academics and politics.
Here’s some takeaways from the documents released Wednesday.
Epstein said Trump ‘knew about the girls,’ but it’s unclear what he meant
Trump and Epstein were friends for years but at some point had a falling out, even before underage girls started to come forward to accuse Epstein of sexual abuse.
Journalists sometimes reached out to Epstein, perhaps hoping he might have dirt to spill on Trump. One of those writers was Michael Wolff, who has written extensively about Trump. In a 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein mentioned that one of his best-known accusers, Virginia Giuffre, had worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
“She was the one who accused Prince Andrew,” Epstein wrote.
Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, had said that Epstein’s longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago to give sexualized massages to Epstein. And Trump had long claimed that he banned Epstein from coming to Mar-a-Lago.
Epstein said in an email to Wolff that Trump hadn’t asked him to resign from the club, because he hadn’t been a member.
“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein added.
In July, Trump said he had banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because his one-time friend was “taking people who worked for me,” including Giuffre.
Before her death, Giuffre said that she only met Trump once and that he was not among the people who abused her. She didn’t think Trump knew of Epstein’s misconduct with underage girls.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Democrats had leaked select emails to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
Mentions of former Prince Andrew
In lawsuits and interviews, Giuffre accused Epstein and Maxwell of pressuring her into sexual encounters with Britain’s former Prince Andrew, starting when she was 17 years old. Those allegations eventually cost Andrew — now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — his official titles and his royal residence near Windsor Castle.
In 2011, Epstein emailed a reporter and attacked Giuffre’s credibility.
“Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have,” wrote Epstein, before arguing that “this girl is a total liar.”
Epstein wrote that he’d ask if then-Prince Andrew’s “people” would cooperate with the reporter for a story.
Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied Giuffre’s allegations.
That same year, Epstein, whose writing paid little heed to grammar or spelling, also mentioned Giuffre and Trump in an email that Epstein sent to Maxwell.
“i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virignia spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned,” Epstein wrote.
“I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell responded.
In other emails, Epstein strategized how to respond to Giuffre’s stories, which included an account of meeting former President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean.
“Presidents at dinner on caribean islands. ( clinton was never ever there, easy to confirm ). Sharing a bath with a Prince ( bathtub too small even for one adult ). sex slave being paid thousands of dollars. ( while at the exact same time, she was working as a hostess in a burger bar ).”
Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them, including Giuffre.
Relationship with the press
Many of the documents were email exchanges between Epstein and journalists he had longstanding relationships with, or who solicited his insights on financial markets and Trump.
He was asked, typically off the record, to weigh in on everything from the president’s relationships with foreign leaders to the impact of oil prices on wealthy families in Saudi Arabia.
Epstein offered to broker introductions between journalists and powerful people numerous times. He also contested the accusations against him.
In a 2016 email to a reporter, Epstein denied ever spending time with former President Bill Clinton or Vice President Al Gore on his island.
“You can also add, fresh politcal juice by stating that Clinton was never on the island,” Epstein wrote. “I never met Al Gore. No diners on the island either, no matter how much detail has been in the press.”
Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C. and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Minneapolis man will spend nearly 20 years behind bars for raping a woman in 2013.
It’s a case that was solved by Hennepin County’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative team, which was created to help test a backlog of rape kits that hadn’t been touched for years.
Court documents show the victim in the 2013 case didn’t want to move forward. On Wednesday, she said that’s not true.
Mohamud Bulle will now serve time for that crime, with help from evidence that came from another case he was involved in last year.
Last month, a jury found Bulle guilty of criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping.
According to a criminal complaint, Bulle sexually assaulted a woman who got separated from her friends after an event in Minneapolis in October 2013. A passerby found her “a few minutes” after the assault and called 911, the complaint states. The victim underwent a sexual assault examination, the results of which were sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Seven years later, the BCA completed testing on the kit, but found no matches for the DNA profile. In 2024, Bulle submitted his DNA to authorities during an attempted murder and assault investigation, and his profile was found to be a match to the 2013 kit. Authorities reconnected with the victim in February.
On Wednesday, Melissa Zimmerman, the victim of the 2013 assault, spoke publicly for the first time.
“I wanted to give up a lot. Girls out there, getting a rape test kit done isn’t easy, it’s scary. But you know what, if I wouldn’t have done it that day, I wouldn’t have been able to send a horrible, horrible person to jail finally,” Melissa Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman’s husband also spoke on Wednesday.
“My position is … when do the victims get to decide whether someone is prosecuted for a crime that was obvious?” Zimmerman’s husband said.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty was also at Wednesday’s news conference, where she formally apologized to Zimmerman.
“I am so sorry. You deserve to have your cases prioritized and taken seriously,” Moriarty said.
Court documents show Bulle was charged last year in the attempted murder and assault case.
Sexual Assault Resources
General Sites for information related to sexual assault and resources throughout Minnesota:
A middle school health teacher in Douglas County was arrested Monday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child, according to the sheriff’s office.
Teresa Whalin, a 28-year-old woman from Centennial, was arrested on investigation of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, internet exploitation of a child and stalking, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
Whalin, an integrated wellness teacher at Ranch View Middle School teacher, has been employed by Douglas County School District since July 2021, according to a letter sent to parents by Ranch View principal Erin Kyllo.
As of Wednesday, Whalin had been placed on administrative leave by the school district, Kyllo wrote in the letter.
“We are working to find a long-term substitute teacher for our impacted students,” Kyllo wrote. “In the meantime, the entire Ranch View Middle School administrative team will support our students and ensure learning continues.”
Additional information about the incident was not available Wednesday. School district officials cited the ongoing investigation and the “sensitive nature of the allegations.”
Anyone with information about Whalin or additional victims is asked to contact investigators at sclay@dcsheriff.net.
“I know it is concerning to receive news of this nature,” Kyllo wrote to parents. “Please know the safety and well-being of every student is of primary importance to Ranch View Middle School and the Douglas County School District.”
WASHINGTON — For more than a year, detainees at a California immigrant detention center said, they were summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s office late at night. Hours frequently passed, they said, before they were sent back to their dorms.
What they allege happened in the office became the subject of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative manager, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts at the Golden State Annex in McFarland. A person with that name worked in a higher-ranking post, as chief of security, at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana until August — the same month The Times sent questions to the company that operates the facilities.
The Department of Homeland Security said it could not substantiate the allegations. According to an attorney for one of the detainees, the California attorney general’s office opened an investigation into the matter.
Immigrant advocates point to the case as one of many allegations of abuse in U.S. immigration facilities, within a system which they say fails to properly investigate.
In three complaints reviewed by The Times that were filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), to a watchdog agency and with DHS, detainees accused Quin of sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct. The complainants initially knew the lieutenant only as “Lt. Quinn,” and he is referred to as such in the federal complaints, though the correct spelling is “Quin.”
The complaints also allege other facility staff knew about and facilitated abuse, perpetuating a culture of impunity.
The Golden State Annex, a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement detention facility, in McFarland last year.
The California and Louisiana facilities are both operated by the Florida-based private prison giant, the GEO Group.
A Dec. 10, 2024, post on Instagram Threads appears to allude to issues Quin faced in California. The post pictures him standing in front of a GEO Group flag and states: “Permit me to reintroduce myself … You will respect my authority. They tried to hinder me, but God intervened.”
Asked about the accusations, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Security public affairs secretary, said in a statement that allegations of misconduct by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees or contractors are treated seriously and investigated thoroughly.
“These complaints were filed in 2024 — well before current DHS leadership and the necessary reforms they implemented,” McLaughlin wrote. “The investigation into this matter has concluded, and ICE — through its own investigation reviewed by [the DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] — could not substantiate any complaint of sexual assault or rape.”
The GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Advocates for the detainees say they are undeterred and will continue to seek justice for people they say have been wronged.
Advocates also say the potential for abuse at detention facilities will grow as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown brings such facilities to record population levels. The population of detained immigrants surpassed a high of 61,000 in August, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan research organization.
The allegations against Quin by a 28-year-old detainee are detailed in his FTCA complaint, a precursor to a lawsuit, filed in January with DHS. The complaint seeks $10 million for physical and emotional damages.
The Times generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse and is referring to him by his middle initial, E.
McLaughlin’s response did not address the FTCA complaint that details E’s sexual assault allegations.
Reached by phone, Quin told The Times, “I don’t speak with the media,” and referred a reporter to the Golden State Annex. After being read the allegations against him and asked to respond, he hung up.
E alleged abuse in interviews with The Times, and in a recorded interview with an attorney, which formed the basis for the FTCA complaint.
In the complaint, he said that beginning in May 2023, Quin would call him into a room, where no cameras or staff were present, to say he had been given a citation or that guards had complained about him.
One day, the complaint alleges, Quin rubbed his own genitals over his pants and began making sexual comments. E told Quin he felt uncomfortable and wanted to go back to his dorm. But Quin smirked, dragged his chair closer and grabbed E in the crotch, the complaint says.
After E pushed Quin away and threatened to defend himself physically, the complaint alleges, Quin made his own threat: to call a “code black” — an emergency — that would summon guards and leave E facing charges of assaulting a federal officer.
Instead, E said, Quin called for an escort to take him back to his dorm.
After that, the late-night summons — sometimes at midnight or 2 a.m. — increased, E said in his complaint. Each time, Quin continued to rub his genitals over his clothes, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges Quin repeatedly offered to help with E’s immigration case in exchange for sexual favors. Then Quin found out E is bisexual and E alleged Quin threatened to tell his family during a visit. Afraid of his family finding out about his sexuality, E said in the complaint, he finally acquiesced to letting Quin touch his genitals and perform oral sex on him.
“I just, I ended up doing it,” E said in a recorded interview with his attorney.
Afterward, the complaint says, Quin told E that he would make sure to help him, and that no one would find out.
The complaint alleges that Quin brought E contraband gifts, including a phone, and, around Christmas, a water bottle full of alcohol.
“I feel dirty,” E said in the recorded interview. “I feel ashamed of myself, you know? I feel like my dignity was just nowhere.”
E said in his complaint that a staff member told him in December 2023 that a guard had reported Quin to the warden after noticing E had been out of his dorm for a long time; the guard had reviewed security cameras showing Quin giving E the bottle of alcohol.
E said the staffer told him that Quin was temporarily suspended from interacting with detainees, and the late-night summons stopped for a while.
Lee Ann Felder-Heim, staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, which filed a complaint with the federal government alleging mistreatment of detainees at the Golden State Annex in McFarland.
(Maria del Rio / For The Times)
A second, earlier complaint alleging mistreatment at the McFarland facility was filed on E’s behalf in August 2024 by the Asian Law Caucus with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL).
That complaint alleges that other GEO Group staff targeted him with sexually harassing and degrading comments. It does not address E’s sexual assault allegations, because E said he was initially too afraid to talk about them.
Once, when E was lying on his stomach in his cell, a guard commented loudly to other staff that he was waiting for a visit from Quin; the guard made a motion of putting her finger through a hole, insinuating that E sought to engage in sexual intercourse, the complaint states.
The broader issue isn’t one person, “but rather a system of impunity and abuse,” said Lee Ann Felder-Heim, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “The reports make it clear that other staff were aware of what was going on and actually were assisting in making it happen.”
In addition to detailing E’s own experiences, the complaint also details abuse and harassment of five other detainees. One detainee is transgender, a fact that would play a role in how federal officials investigated the complaint.
In February and March, CRCL sent Felder-Heim letters saying it had closed the investigations into all but one case of alleged sexual abuse and harassment — including those regarding Quin — citing, as justification, Trump’s First-Day executive order concerning “gender ideology extremism.” The order prohibits using federal funds to “promote gender ideology,” so Felder-Heim said it appears the investigations were shut down because one of the complainants is transgender. The other case was closed earlier on the merits.
She called the investigation process flawed and “wholly inadequate.”
E filed a third complaint with another oversight body, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. To his knowledge, no investigation was initiated.
In March, the Trump administration shut down three internal oversight bodies: CRCL, OIDO and the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) Ombudsman. Civil rights groups sued the following month, prompting the agency to resurrect the offices.
But staffing at the offices was decimated, according to sworn court declarations by DHS officials. CRCL has gone from having 147 positions to 22; OIDO from about 118 to about 10; and the CIS Ombudsman from 46 to about 10.
“All legally required functions of CRCL continue to be performed, but in an efficient and cost-effective manner and without hindering the Department’s mission of securing the homeland,” said McLaughlin, the DHS spokeswoman.
Michelle Brané, who was the immigrant detention ombudsman under the Biden administration, said the civil rights office generally had first dibs on complaints about sexual assault. She recalled the complaint about Quin but said her office didn’t investigate it because the civil rights office already was.
Brané said the decrease in oversight amid increased detention will inevitably exacerbate issues such as allegations of sexual assault. Worse conditions also make it harder to hire quality staff, she said.
Around the same time that E was held at Golden State Annex, a gay couple from Colombia reported in April 2024 to the OIDO that Quin had sexually harassed them.
D.T., 26, and C.B., 25, were separated upon arrival at Golden State Annex. D.T. began to experience severe anxiety attacks, they said in the Asian Law Caucus complaint and in an interview with The Times. The couple asked to be placed in the same dormitory.
Before granting their request, Quin asked what they would give him in return, the couple recounted in the complaint. Afterward, the complaint alleges, he frequently invited them to his office, saying they owed him.
“We never accepted going to his office, because we knew what it was for,” C.B. told the Times.
In their complaint, they allege that Quin asked D.T. if he wanted to have sex and told C.B., “You belong to me.”
The couple became aware that Quin had also harassed other detainees and gave preferential treatment to those who they believed accepted his requests for sexual favors, according to the complaint; one detainee told them that he had grabbed Quin’s hand and placed it on his penis to avoid being taken to solitary confinement for starting a fight.
D.T. said in an interview with The Times that he believes “below him are many people who never said anything.”
In a Dec. 2, 2024, internal facility grievance from Golden State Annex reviewed by The Times, another detainee alleges that Quin retaliated against him for speaking out against misconduct.
In the grievance and in an interview with The Times, the detainee said he spoke up after, on several occasions, watching another man walk to Quin’s office late at night and come back to the dorm hours later. He also said in the grievance that Quin brought in marijuana, cellphones and other contraband.
Another witness, Gustavo Flores, 33, said Quin recognized him as a former Golden State Annex detainee when he was briefly transferred to the Alexandria facility, just before his deportation to El Salvador in May.
Quin pulled Flores aside and offered to uncuff him and get him lunch in exchange for cleaning the lobby; after he finished, Quin brought him into his office, where he peppered Flores with questions about Golden State Annex, Flores said.
Flores said he asked about certain staffers and detainees. He told Flores people wanted to sue him, calling them “crybabies.”
“He’s telling me everything, like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what goes on over there,’” Flores said.
When E tried to end the sexual encounters, his complaint says, Quin threatened to have him sent to a detention facility in Texas or have his deportation expedited.
In October 2024, E was transferred to the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield.
Heliodoro Moreno, E’s attorney, said the California Attorney General’s Office confirmed to him in February that it was investigating. An investigator interviewed E in April and again in May, he said, and the investigation remains open.
California Department of Justice spokesperson Nina Sheridan declined to comment on a potential investigation. But in a statement she said the office remains vigilant of “ongoing, troubling conditions” at detention facilities throughout California.
“We are especially concerned that conditions at these facilities are only set to worsen as the Trump Administration continues to ramp up its inhumane campaign of mass deportation,” she wrote.
E, who had a pending claim for a special status known as withholding of removal, dropped his case in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Moreno said his client wished to no longer be detained.
“It’s very unfortunate that he’s in these circumstances,” Moreno said. His client was forced to forgo his appellate rights and leave “without really getting a conclusion to receiving justice for what happened to him.”
Almost 40 years after a passerby found the skeletal remains of missing teenager Donna Sue Wayne in a northeast Aurora field, investigators finally identified a suspect in her death — a man already in prison for the murder and sexual assault of another woman killed in the city seven months after Wayne.
Richard “Ricky” Saathoff, 65, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in Wayne’s death, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
While some details of the 18-year-old’s disappearance have long been public knowledge, a newly filed Aurora Police Department arrest affidavit illuminates the winding path investigators trod for nearly 40 years, using DNA and fingerprint evidence along with witness statements to identify Saathoff as a suspect.
Donna Sue Wayne.
Wayne went missing after leaving her Aurora home to meet up with friends at a Montbello house party and bar the night of June 13, 1986.
She was last seen alive early the next morning, when a Stapleton airport worker saw her being physically and sexually assaulted by a man driving her green 1972 Ford LTD in the 800 block of North Picadilly Road.
Earlier reports described the car as red, but the arrest affidavit includes photos of the green Ford. The car was later destroyed. .
Wayne screamed for help before the man forced her back into the car, the woman told police. The woman drove to the nearest house to get help, but by the time police arrived, Wayne and the man were gone.
Wayne’s car was seen abandoned in Aurora’s Hoffman Heights neighborhood the next day, on June 15, 1986, but police did not link the car to Wayne until it was towed away two weeks later, an Aurora cold case investigator wrote in the affidavit.
Police lifted two fingerprints from the driver’s side window, and a neighbor found Wayne’s car keys, tossed in an evergreen bush down the block near Vaughn Elementary School, a few weeks later.
Wayne’s body was found by a passing driver in a northeast Aurora field littered with trash and debris one month after she was last seen alive, with her clothes and purse were strewn about the area, according to the affidavit.
Her exact cause of death was never confirmed because of how much her remains had decomposed, but she had multiple broken bones, including her jaw, ribs, clavicle and in her neck, chest and face.
The investigation seemed to stall after her body was found as police chased leads that did not pan out.
Fingerprint evidence from the driver’s side window was later misplaced and went missing for years, until it was found and retested in 2009, with no matches.
Investigators retested the fingerprints in a new system in 2012 and matched the two prints to Saathoff, who was already in prison after he was convicted of murder in the death of 40-year-old Norma Houston. Houston’s body was found naked, brutally beaten and assaulted near a gas station at 11697 E. Colfax Ave. on Jan. 18, 1987, seven months after Wayne’s death, police wrote.
Like Wayne, Houston had significant trauma to her head and a broken jaw, police wrote.
Houston was sexually assaulted, and though Wayne’s remains were too deteriorated to confirm sexual assault, her pants and underwear had been removed, like Houston’s.
Investigators linked Saathoff to Houston’s murder after his DNA was found on her clothes, and he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in June 1988. He is eligible for parole in June 2027, state records show.
After the 2012 fingerprint match, investigators tried to further link Saathoff to Wayne’s murder, according to the affidavit. A detective interviewed him in prison in 2014, and he denied knowing Wayne (and later denied killing Houston).
Investigators determined Saathoff lived with his parents in the same neighborhood where Wayne’s car was abandoned, and so did his ex-girlfriend.
In May, more than a decade after the fingerprint match, investigators again looked at Wayne’s clothes for a DNA sample, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found and tested DNA on Wayne’s jeans that had a high likelihood of belonging to Saathoff.
Saathoff remains in prison at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, according to state records. His next court date was not available Friday.
