Justin Rohrlich

A series of recent shootings at Asian-owned businesses in Texas has sparked a police manhunt for a gunman who authorities believe is intent on carrying out anti-Asian violence. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia announced the alarming news at a Friday press conference, where he revealed that investigators now believe three recent shootings are connected—and motivated by bigotry. “On Wednesday, I had given you an update on this case, and at that time in the investigation, we did not have any indication that this crime was hate-motivated,” Garcia said. “As of this afternoon, that has changed due to the continued investigation.” In […]

An international crime boss at the top of an organization known for dismembering rivals with chainsaws is facing federal charges on a more mundane allegation: applying for, and receiving, a COVID-19 bailout prosecutors say he wasn’t entitled to. Mileta Miljanić, the Bosnian-born head of “Group America,” a “brutal cocaine trafficking network” with alleged links to the Gambino crime family and at least a dozen murders to its credit, defrauded the Small Business Administration (SBA) out of more than $150,000 in economic relief funds during the early days of the pandemic, according to a felony complaint unsealed Wednesday and reviewed by The […]

A Connecticut computer technician in love with two different women has been found guilty of killing his wife, then floating a preposterous cover story that an obese, masked intruder with a deep, bass voice like actor Vin Diesel actually broke in and shot her after asking for their credit cards and PIN numbers. Richard Dabate, a 40-year-old from the town of Ellington, was convicted by a jury Tuesday on all charges—first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and providing a false statement—in the Dec. 23, 2015 death of Connie Dabate. Richard Dabate’s seemingly airtight alibi unraveled before his very eyes, thanks to […]

A California mom whose 3-year-old daughter suffocated to death during an exorcism to rid the child of “an evil spirit” said shortly before her arrest that she was sad the girl had died but was thankful she wouldn’t have to live in a world where “everything is just so bad, like, everything just going downhill.” In a video posted to YouTube on Jan. 27, 2022 and unearthed by The Daily Beast, Claudia Elisia Hernandez Santos, 25, told viewers, “Like, I could sit here and be negative… be sad about the whole situation that she passed away, but it’s like, there’s no […]

A reality TV personality known as the “Bear Whisperer” is facing federal charges for illegally poaching a bear later featured on the show, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast. Harvey Neil Anthony, who goes by Blaine Anthony professionally, violated the Lacey Act when he shot and killed a black bear in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park, then lied on official paperwork about where the animal had been bagged, prosecutors say. “Black bears occur throughout the Park and represent a significant wildlife component of its ecosystem,” the complaint explains. “Hunting is prohibited in the Park.” The Lacey […]

An Oregon “mycological consultant” told the CEO of online trading platform Robinhood that he would skin his children while he watched, as payback for investment losses the man claimed to have sustained, federal prosecutors allege. Christopher David Michalski, 38, is charged with interstate communication of threats, a felony, for posting numerous tweets over the course of the past year vowing “physical violence and murder” against Robinhood’s top brass and employees, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday and first obtained by The Daily Beast. In one example cited in the filing, Michalski tagged @AskRobinhood on Twitter and wrote, “I dream of […]

An Alabama corrections official who vanished with an inmate facing capital murder charges “may have been brainwashed” into helping him escape, her mother-in-law said Tuesday. The pair could be anywhere by now, Frances White told The Daily Beast, explaining that Lauderdale County Assistant Director of Corrections Vicky Sue White, 56, was frugal and had amassed enough money to keep her afloat for some time. “She had said that she’d like to live in Florida, that’s the only thing I can think of,” Frances White, 88, said in a phone interview Tuesday morning. As the search for Vicky White and 38-year-old Casey […]

A former CIA officer who pleaded guilty to drugging and sexually assaulting at least 26 women while on assignment abroad is now claiming he couldn’t have done everything he’s accused of because he suffers from erectile dysfunction. Brian Jeffrey Raymond was arrested Oct. 9, 2020, in La Mesa, California. The “experienced sexual predator,” as prosecutors described him, had been living with his parents in his childhood hometown after abruptly returning to the U.S. from his undercover posting at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. A source close to the case told The Daily Beast that the CIA began an internal administrative […]

After 11 hours of deliberation, an Idaho jury has found disgraced ex-Idaho GOP state lawmaker Aaron von Ehlinger guilty of raping a 19-year-old intern last year after a dinner date. The decision followed a lurid three-day trial during which von Ehlinger vehemently disputed the allegations, insisting the encounter had been consensual. But even though his accuser, who testified under the pseudonym Jane Doe, fled the courtroom part way through her emotional testimony, the jury was able to hear powerful testimony from Doe’s mother, as well as a hospital nurse who examined Doe in the aftermath of the attack. This breaking story […]

A disgraced Republican lawmaker charged with raping a teenage intern testified on Thursday that he believed the act had been consensual, following a first date he described as a successful one. But in the middle of her own testimony a day earlier, former Idaho State Rep. Aaron von Ehlinger’s accuser, identified in court filings only as “Jane Doe,” became so distressed that she fled the courtroom, saying, “I can’t do this” as she walked out. When it became apparent that Doe would not be returning, the prosecution rested its case, bringing an abrupt end to a lurid trial that has captured […]

Authorities in Northern California have identified the trio accused of snatching a baby boy from his grandmother’s apartment as she briefly stepped outside to unload groceries from her car. The San Jose Police Department on Wednesday named the suspects as area residents Jose Roman Portillo, 28; Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez, 43; and Baldomeo Sandoval, 37. SJPD spokesman Sgt. Christian Camarillo confirmed the arrests to The Daily Beast. The three are charged with kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, child abduction, and home invasion. “During the investigation, detectives learned that prior to the kidnapping, Suspect Yesenia Guadalupe Ramirez had transported the victim and the […]

A first-class passenger flying home from Atlanta became enraged with a flight attendant who refused to continue serving the man alcohol, calling him a “fag” and a “queer” before throwing a glass of ice at him and hitting him with an onboard telephone, according to an FBI affidavit obtained first by The Daily Beast. Christopher Alexander Morgan was arrested when Delta Air Lines flight 2908 touched down April 22 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, states the affidavit, which was unsealed Monday. He is facing charges of interference with flight crew members or attendants, a felony which carries up to 20 […]

When Allison, a 22-year-old student at the University of the District of Columbia, decided to stay home on Friday, she felt lucky to have missed the nearby sniper-style shooting that took place that afternoon. When she later saw a picture of the suspected gunman on TV and realized they had gone to middle school together, she screamed. “Thank God I wasn’t there yesterday—I was supposed to be there for a ceremony, but I decided not to go,” Allison told The Daily Beast on Saturday. “It’s really surreal that my former classmate would actually shoot at, or near, my university… It’s just […]

A grown man in California is accused of terrorizing companies that make children’s toys, Disney, the publishers of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and even a comic book writer over his outrage at the supposed “radical homosexual agenda” he said had corrupted Mr. Potato Head and “ruined Superman.” That’s according to a criminal complaint unsealed today in federal court, charging Jeremy David Hanson, 34, with one count of interstate communication of threats to commit violence. His alleged beefs echoed many of the talking points used recently by far-right politicians, with authorities alleging he targeted “woke” companies with inclusive corporate policies, such as Land […]

A German man has been formally named as a suspect in connection with the 2007 disappearance of British three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who went missing while vacationing with her parents in the Algarve, Portuguese authorities announced Thursday. Christian Brückner, who is currently imprisoned in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American woman in 2005, is now considered an “arguido,” which translates to “named suspect.” The classification was made by German prosecutors on Wednesday, at Portugal’s request, according to AFP. Brückner, 45, is already facing charges for allegedly raping a 20-year-old Irish woman in 2004, three years before McCann vanished, and is also being […]

An influential Republican state lawmaker stepped down as leader of an important legislative panel less than a week after a report accused him of exchanging more than 70 text messages with a jailed landscaper facing federal child pornography and sexual abuse charges. Sen. Ray E. Holmberg, a 78-year-old grandfather of five, is North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator—and until yesterday, chairman of the Legislative Management Committee, which decides members’ assignments and topics to consider for legislation. “Recent events and discussions have made it clear to me that the interim governing body of the legislature, Legislative Management, does not need to be any […]

An Ohio doctor accused of administering deadly doses of fentanyl to critically ill patients has been found not guilty by a jury made up of seven women and five men after roughly six days of deliberations. Dr. William Husel, who worked as an ICU physician in the Cincinnati suburb of Mount Carmel, was indicted in 2019 on 25 counts of murder—11 of which were dismissed at prosecutors’ request last December, three weeks before the trial started. The government reportedly opted to limit its case to those patients who received 500 micrograms or more of fentanyl, but never specified its exact reasoning […]

Laurelyn Gunn and her husband, Curtis, loved trivia. “Between the two of us, we had a lot of otherwise useless knowledge,” Gunn, 63, told The Daily Beast. On Saturday night, the couple, who lived at Rossmoor, a 55-plus retirement community in Northern California, spent a few hours participating in a monthly trivia event held at the nearby clubhouse. “A friend of ours put together a pretty strong team, and one of the guys on our team was this guy named Steve. I never knew his last name,” Gunn said. “And we were walking home from the trivia game when Steve, who […]

A Tennessee bartender accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with zip-ties in tow will soon see his menu options expand dramatically while under home detention, according to court filings. Eric Gavelek Munchel, 31, who worked at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk in Nashville until late 2020, was given permission this week by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to “download and use the UberEats app on his smartphone,” an April 13 order states. Munchel, who allegedly participated in the sacking of the Capitol building alongside his mother, will also be allowed to use his employer’s “internet-enabled computer […]

Prosecutors on Monday likened an Ohio doctor accused of killing 14 critically ill patients with massive doses of powerful drugs to a vet putting down an old dog. “The veterinarian is not giving them that medicine because that veterinarian is a bad person with malice in their heart,” Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor David Zeyen said during closing arguments in the contentious murder trial of William Husel, a former anesthesiologist who worked the night shift at Columbus’ Mount Carmel West hospital. “They are doing that out of mercy because that is what you do to sick animals. But their intention is not […]

A man arrested this week for allegedly posing as a phony Homeland Security agent in a years-long ruse that fooled at least four members of the Secret Service—one of them on First Lady Jill Biden’s security detail—has been busted for passing bad checks, allegedly created a fake company to win a city contract, and stiffed a close friend and business partner before skipping town, according to state court records and interviews with two former associates. Arian Taherzadeh, 40, was arrested by the feds at his Washington, D.C. apartment complex on Wednesday. He is charged with false personation of an officer or […]

A Japanese organized crime kingpin conspired to broker massive deals with at least three insurgent groups in Myanmar, trading weapons—including American-made surface-to-air missiles—for heroin and meth to be sold in New York, according to an six-count complaint unsealed Thursday in Manhattan federal court. But what Takeshi Ebisawa, a 57-year-old Yakuza leader and the alleged boss of the operation, didn’t realize, was that the middleman he was relying on to facilitate the transactions was actually an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, the filing reveals. After nearly three years of secret meetings in Bangkok, Copenhagen, Bali, and elsewhere, the feds finally […]

Last month, 35-year-old Hannah Choi and her ex-boyfriend shared a “goodbye dinner” at an Outback Steakhouse in Northern Virginia. What Choi didn’t know at the time was that it would be her last meal. After Choi’s remains were discovered three weeks later in a Maryland park, her former live-in boyfriend, 27-year-old Joel Mosso Merino, was charged with second-degree murder and disposal of a body, and went on the run. But while his whereabouts remain unknown, a search warrant unsealed in Fairfax County Circuit Court provides new, previously unreported details of Choi’s final moments. The search for Choi made headlines in the […]

A teenage neo-Nazi accused of torching a Texas synagogue last Halloween suffers from “a myriad of mental health issues,” but his parents—one of whom is a well-respected physician now serving as a high-ranking Veterans Affairs official—never got him the treatment he desperately needed, according to a federal magistrate judge. Further, the judge said, after doctors at a leading psychiatric hospital evaluated Franklin Barrett Sechriest in 2016 and warned his mother and father that their son “should not have access to firearms,” they subsequently “allowed [him] to acquire a small arsenal of firearms, including one shotgun, three rifles and three handguns.” The […]

An ICE detainee on a hunger strike finally began eating again, but immigration officials force-fed him anyway—and the procedure went so badly that one of the guards in the room thought the man was having a stroke, according to court filings obtained by The Daily Beast. Hamad Mohsen Thabit Saad Sayad, a 28-year-old asylum-seeker from Yemen, said he fled his homeland after facing persecution by Houthi rebels. He has been in ICE detention since Dec. 16, 2020, and was facing deportation until a federal judge halted Sayad’s removal as his case is further reviewed. In January, Sayad, who tested positive for […]

Vladimir Putin “massively misjudged the situation” in ordering the invasion of Ukraine and surely knows just how poorly things are going for Russian forces even though his closest advisers are hiding the truth from him, according to the head of Britain’s spy services. In a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday morning, GCHQ director Sir Jeremy Fleming said the Russian leader’s “unprovoked and premeditated attack on Ukraine” has been “shocking in every sense of the word.” He also said Putin, a former KGB officer, was caught completely flat-footed by what he found. “It’s clear he misjudged the […]

A Utah maintenance technician was arrested after his supervisor at the feed mill where he works “found what looks like a hit list on [his] desk” with more than a dozen coworkers listed as targets, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by police. Kevin Michael Jerman, 56, a U.S. Army veteran who claims to have served in Iraq, is charged with making terroristic threats, which is a felony. Jerman, cops said, “had the firearms, knowledge, and experience to carry out the plan he had written down on paper, especially with his military background.” That plan, the affidavit says, read as […]

A Texas mother abandoned her two young kids in a squalid motel room for weeks on end, leaving them with little food and pulling her 12-year-old daughter from school to care for her 1-year-old brother full-time, according to court filings reviewed by The Daily Beast. Ashli Rene Lock, 37, is charged with felony child abandonment by authorities after police discovered the children living alone in their own filth at a Quality Inn in Houston. “Officers noted that both of the children appeared malnourished and filthy,” states a charging document filed Thursday by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “The one year […]

A teenage ISIS supporter allegedly plotted to travel to Chicago with two others during spring break and kill worshipers at a Shia Muslim mosque, according to federal court records unsealed Friday. “If they had not encountered law enforcement at that point, they would continue on to another Shia mosque or Jewish synagogue and execute the same plan,” one filing states. “They did not have a plan to escape but rather their plan ended with them being shot by law enforcement.” Xavier Pelkey, 18, was arrested in February by FBI agents in Waterville, Maine, and charged with possession of unregistered destructive devices. […]

Instagram “influencer” Caroline Calloway is accused of ducking out on a more than $40,000 rent bill during her move from her West Village studio earlier this month. Calloway—who was the subject of a March 7 article documenting the move—left having last paid the $2,734.64 rent in September 2020, according to a civil complaint filed by her landlord in New York County Supreme Court. The allegations add to a long list of controversies for Calloway, who gained notoriety after securing a $500,000 book deal in 2015 only to have publishers withdraw the contract after she failed to write it, having already spent […]

Law enforcement identified a suspect accused of gunning down five homeless men in Washington, D.C. and New York City over the past two weeks—killing two—after a tipster called police with the suspect’s phone number and Instagram handle, after which cops reviewed cellphone location data to place him at the scene of additional shootings, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court. Gerald Brevard III, 30, was arrested Tuesday by police in D.C., where three of the five attacks took place. Brevard, whose father told The Daily Beast that his son had been “dealing with mental illness for […]

A New England woman is accused of posing as a combat-wounded Marine Corps veteran and defrauding various charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while faking Stage IV cancer she falsely claimed was due to toxic exposure from burn pits in Iraq as well as an IED blast in Afghanistan. Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, 31, claimed she was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star while serving in the Marines from 2009 to 2016, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in Rhode Island federal court. The feds say Cavanaugh, who never served but held down a job as a social […]

An American pastor who moved to Haiti to teach impoverished residents marketable job skills—adopting two Haitian orphans and opening an evangelical pre-school along the way—is now facing U.S. charges for “engaging in illicit sexual conduct” with a child while living in the Caribbean nation. Corrigan Clay, 43, was arrested Thursday by federal agents, according to a newly unsealed indictment first obtained by The Daily Beast. He is being prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, documents filed in Pittsburgh federal court state. Clay sexually abused the unidentified child from January 2014 to December 2017, the indictment states. No […]

A professional card player who has won more than $1.5 million at World Series of Poker events alone, has been charged with running an illegal gambling business in his home state of California “involving supplying, operating, and maintaining video slot machines and devices” and laundering the proceeds using chips from a legit casino near his home, according to a newly unsealed federal indictment first obtained by The Daily Beast. In addition to the gambling charge, Gal Yifrach, 35, also faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Yifrach was the subject of an advertorial last year in LA Weekly that […]

Two little boys in California were dead for at least three months before their adoptive parents reported them missing in December 2020, authorities announced. Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said the remains of 4-year-old Orrin West and 3-year-old Orson West, whose birth names were Classic and Cinsere Pettus, have not been located. “​​However, I would like to emphasize that the fact that law enforcement has not found their bodies does not preclude a murder prosecution,” Zimmer said, declining to say if investigators know how Orrin and Orson died. Trezell Phillip West, […]

A California man who fatally shot his three young daughters and killed a fourth person before taking his own life during a supervised visit at a Sacramento church on Monday was legally barred from having a gun after his estranged partner got a restraining order to protect herself and the kids from him. David Mora, 39, was instructed by a judge last May to stay at least 100 yards away from his family, including his girls, Samia, 13, Samantha, 10, and Samarah, 9. The Daily Beast is withholding the mother’s name because she was a victim of domestic abuse. The court […]

An Ohio woman who escaped her family’s home after years of what she described as horrific, religiously-motivated abuse has filed a lawsuit accusing her mother, father, uncle, brothers, and a local cop of not only causing the abuse, but allowing it to continue, then covering it up once authorities became suspicious. In the 22-page civil suit, filed Feb. 21 in Cincinnati federal court, Serah Bellar says her parents “mandated” that all of their 18 biological children and one adopted child attend their uncle’s Dove Outreach Church in Waverly, Ohio. “This cult-like ‘church’ is owned, operated, and ministered by Defendant James Bellar, […]

An ICE detainee from Yemen being held in a privately run Arizona jail has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month, skipping some 73 meals and losing almost 17 percent of his overall body weight as of Friday. Authorities on Friday asked a judge to allow them to force-feed the 26-year-old man through a plastic tube inserted up his nose and down to his stomach—a practice the American Medical Association (AMA) considers a form of torture. In federal court filings first obtained by The Daily Beast, the U.S. government requested permission from a judge to “involuntarily administer nutrition” to […]

Far-right militia leader Stewart Rhodes on Friday was ordered detained pending his trial on seditious conspiracy charges over his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. In late January, a Texas magistrate ordered Rhodes, a Yale-educated lawyer and former paratrooper who founded the Oath Keepers in 2009, to be jailed until his case is heard in court. Today, a federal judge agreed, deciding Rhodes was too dangerous to set free. “I am the first to recognize that there are expansive protections under the First Amendment for speech,” U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said before handing […]

Five officials at a private Christian academy in Texas are facing felony charges over accusations they failed to notify authorities after a ninth-grader reported being sexually assaulted by an older student during a hazing incident on “freshman initiation day.” The three administrators and two athletic coaches at Midland Christian School are identified in an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast as Superintendent Jared Owen Lee, secondary school Principal Dana Elizabeth Ellis, athletic director Gregory Neal McClendon, assistant secondary school principal Matthew David Counts, and baseball coach Barry Lee Russell. “We are motivated in all facets by our faith in […]

A Virginia Beach pastor facing felony charges for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor has been earning $30,000 a month and traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard while free on bail, according to state court filings. John David Blanchard, who serves alongside his wife Robin as senior pastors of the Rock Church in Virginia Beach, got caught up last year in a prostitution sting that netted 17 area men who thought they had been chatting online with underage girls. Blanchard learned he had actually been communicating with an undercover detective and not a teenager after allegedly driving to meet up […]

Six members of a Philadelphia family were stabbed in their sleep early Friday morning by a 29-year-old relative who lived in the home, authorities said. The suspect, who has not yet been publicly identified, was arrested by police a few blocks away, covered in blood, according to cops. Police responded to the alleged attack at 4:09 a.m., Philadelphia Police Department spokesman Officer Eric McLaurin told The Daily Beast. Among the victims listed in a readout of the incident are a 49-year-old woman who was stabbed “multiple times in the neck, head, and back,” who is now hospitalized in critical condition; a […]

A Portland woman was duped into believing she was a DEA agent-in-training for an entire year, walking around with a badge she thought was real, going on fake ride-alongs, and developing “confidential informants” at her phony supervisor’s behest. That’s according to a federal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast, which accuses 41-year-old Robert Edward Golden of impersonating a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent while convincing his “trainee” she was actually on the job. On the evening of Feb. 1, Portland cops detained Golden and the unnamed woman on a street corner not far from the Portland Art Museum, the complaint […]

Authorities in Minnesota may prosecute a SWAT officer over Wednesday’s shooting death of Amir Locke, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced. Freeman’s office will partner with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to review the incident, after which they will jointly determine, “based on the law and evidence, whether criminal charges should be brought,” Freeman said in a statement released early on Friday. Locke was asleep at home when cops entered his apartment on a no-knock warrant. He was apparently asleep, but appeared to be holding a gun, when he was shot. Officer Mark Hanneman was identified by the City of Minneapolis […]

An Oklahoma man celebrated his birthday earlier this month by murdering two people, then followed up the double homicide by killing his live-in girlfriend a few days later, according to law enforcement officials. Robert Lewis is facing three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Quinley Lamb, 43, and Brian Shackelford, 42, both of Sharp County, Arkansas, and Deanna Tippey, 36, of Cherokee County, Oklahoma. Lamb and Shackelford were killed on Jan. 16, Lewis’ 61st birthday, Cherokee County Sheriff Jason Chennault said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. Lamb died of a fractured skull; Shackelford’s throat was slit, the sheriff […]

It was March 17, 1982—St. Patrick’s Day—and James Powers was in the middle of his shift at the Purolator armored truck terminal in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a security guard. At about 11:30 p.m., two men wearing trench coats, dark felt hats, and aviator sunglasses ducked under a garage door as a truck left the depot to make a delivery. The men, one white and one Black, were roughly six feet tall and each carried a walkie-talkie. Once inside, they approached Powers, who was the only guard on-site that night, and introduced themselves as FBI agents while flashing their […]

A West Virginia firefighter and part-time police officer used a dead paramedic’s name to groom an underage girl while at the man’s memorial service, according to new revelations included in an FBI search warrant obtained by The Daily Beast. During the solemn ceremony, Christopher Lee Osborne, 25, sent a Snapchat message under the name “Richard Smith” to a 17-year-old junior firefighter who was also there, saying he wanted to “fuck” the 16-year-old girl next to her, states the newly unsealed warrant. The real Richard Smith, a retired lieutenant and 37-year veteran of the ambulance corps, was being laid to rest after […]

A member of the U.S. Air Force schemed to kill her estranged husband for a six-figure life insurance payout by poisoning his energy drinks and snacks—and tried to enlist the help of the man’s ex, who was actually in cahoots with police, derailing the entire hit. The surreal plot is laid out in a Jan. 5 opinion filed in the United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed a 10-year sentence handed down in 2020 to Airman 1st Class Katelyn Lucille Day, 29, for attempted premeditated murder; attempted conspiracy to commit premeditated murder; solicitation to commit murder; attempted conspiracy […]

Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community are at odds after an elementary school principal in Brooklyn encouraged parents not to engage with their kids about sex abuse allegations involving a widely popular children’s author who killed himself once the accusations became public. Hasidic rabbi, therapist, and writer Chaim Walder, 53, died by suicide on Dec. 27 in an Israeli cemetery, where he reportedly shot himself at the gravesite of his son Meir Zvi, who died of cancer in 2019 at the age of 28. Walder’s death came one day after 22 people testified before a rabbinical court, describing an alleged pattern […]

After a Washington State pharmacist was suspended from his job for a pair of drunk driving arrests, he vowed to go “hunting humans” at the Veterans Affairs facility where he worked, threatening to kill his supervisors and a VA investigator—as well as their families and pets—for supposedly tanking his career, court records say. On Tuesday, Matthew Ruhmann Slater, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of making interstate threats, according to a plea agreement filed in Seattle federal court. In doing so, Slater admitted to a slew of disturbing allegations, including building an AR-15 from parts he ordered through the mail and […]

A year after a pro-Trump mob bent on overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election sacked the U.S. Capitol, the hunt for suspects is nowhere near over. In fact, the feds are still actively searching for hundreds of known rioters. FBI Director Chris Wray has described the Jan. 6 attack as an act of domestic terrorism, which led directly or indirectly to five deaths, roughly 140 injured law enforcement officers, and $1.5 million worth of damage to the Capitol building. Among the alleged perpetrators bagged so far: violent extremists from 45 states and the District of Columbia; avowed neo-Nazis, active-duty […]

When Benjamin Anderson called to cancel brunch plans at around 8 a.m. the morning of Dec. 31, his longtime pal Daniel Stahoviak didn’t think much of it. Anderson, 41, told Stahoviak that he was tired after driving back home to Phoenix from northern Arizona, where he’d been visiting friends. It seemed like a perfectly normal reason to Stahoviak. But then Anderson vanished. Stahoviak and others close to Anderson are now desperately searching for the man they called “Big Daddy,” whose white Lexus UX was spotted at a hotel with three strangers inside just hours before the vehicle was found completely incinerated […]

An Arizona trucker stands accused of kidnapping an undocumented migrant trying to make his way from the U.S.-Mexico border to Pennsylvania, then tormenting his captive with a replica AR-15, a stun gun, and a knife, all the while threatening to “leave him in the desert to die, and kill him and hang his body from a bridge” unless he came up with $30,000, according to federal court records reviewed by The Daily Beast. After four days, the hostage, named in an affidavit as Mexican national Jose Jaime Garcia-Escamilla, managed to inform workers of his plight at the high desert motel where […]

As word spread on Friday that beloved actress Betty White had died at age 99, hordes of the most powerful and famous people in the world cried out in admiration and remembrance of her. President Joe Biden called White “a lovely lady,” with First Lady Jill Biden adding, “Who didn’t love Betty White?” On Twitter, actor Ryan Reynolds wrote: “The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret.” White’s first appearance onstage came while she was a student at […]

From alleged tax fraud by an ex-president’s real estate firm to a 25-year-old cold case and the death of George Floyd, the coming year will see a raft of high-profile court cases go to trial. In California, Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart’s alleged killer will attempt to convince a jury he didn’t murder the 19-year-old a quarter-century ago. In Colorado, construction contractor Barry Morphew will argue he wasn’t behind his wife’s mysterious disappearance. Further east, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard will do battle in a Virginia courtroom over their competing defamation claims. And Prince Andrew will fight off bombshell claims that […]

A shocking murder mystery is playing out in a small Maryland town, pulling in a former Republican state senator and a Hollywood true crime producer along the way. But many say the prime suspects—who are now awaiting their executions—have been wrongfully accused. Nola Lowman’s beloved pet dogs will soon be euthanized, pending a last-ditch request for a judge to spare them, after she says local animal control officials improperly charged the pair with a cat-killing she believes was actually committed by a hungry coyote. The execution order is based solely on the testimony of a lone eyewitness, the late feline’s owner, […]

QAnon acolytes in Dallas are now drinking toxic chemicals from a communal punch bowl, according to the family of a woman who joined the Texas “cult” that’s waiting for the supposed resurrection of President John F. Kennedy and his late son, JFK Jr. Numerous members of the Leek family told the Dallas Observer that the woman, who reportedly abandoned her husband and children in Delaware last month to follow Trump-supporting QAnon leader Michael Brian Protzman to Dallas, has been quaffing a mixture containing chlorine dioxide—industrial bleach—which she apparently distributes among the group. “She was proud to tell us that she was […]

Ex-CIA officer, QAnon acolyte, 9/11 truther, anti-vaxxer, COVID denier, antisemite, and “Big Lie” proponent Robert David Steele stiffed the production crew working his national “Arise USA!” roadshow out of some $50,000 when he suddenly claimed he was out of money after blowing enormous sums on luxury coaches and lavish spreads of Champagne, smoked salmon, and brie that he demanded daily, according to Steele’s former tour manager. But collecting is going to be tough: Steele died in August from the very virus he claims was a hoax—which the tour manager, Jon Stensland, believes the “lying, deceitful conman” caught while out spreading his […]

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Louise Chaput reluctantly called off a hiking trip to Turkey she had been planning to take. Chaput, a 52-year-old psychologist who worked primarily with prison inmates, lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, a French-speaking municipality of 160,000 once known as the “Queen of the Eastern Townships.” Her best friend, Marie Pinault, was going to join her on the trip, along with Pinault’s husband, Denis Masson. But, like so many others, the two were feeling more than a bit rattled about flying. “We said, ‘No, we’re not going abroad, because the planes and all this,’” Pinault told The […]

A Connecticut school board member was slugged in the face by an angry parent Tuesday night during a debate on the future of Glastonbury High School’s Native American-inspired mascot. The dust-up between the parent, Mark Finocchiaro, and board secretary Ray McFall, took place during a 10-minute recess after tempers flared amid a public comment period about the Glastonbury Tomahawks name, which was changed last year to the Glastonbury Guardians. The school’s team logos were also switched from a tomahawk, which many found offensive, to a knight’s helmet. A committee was formed to consider changing the Tomahawks name and logo in the […]

An alleged school shooting plot hatched by two Pennsylvania teens who had access to guns was narrowly averted after an “alarmed parent” contacted the school principal, local authorities said. The duo, Logan Jack Pringle, 17, and Preston Robert Hinebaugh, 16, were in the “planning phase” of the attack, according to police, and now face charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. Hinebaugh is also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal trespass and possession of a firearm by a minor. Pringle and Hinebaugh will be tried as adults, the Cambria County District Attorney’s Office […]

An alleged school shooting plot hatched by two Pennsylvania teens who had access to guns was narrowly averted after an “alarmed parent” contacted the school principal, local authorities said. The duo, Logan Jack Pringle, 17, and Preston Robert Hinebaugh, 16, were in the “planning phase” of the attack, according to police, and now face charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. Hinebaugh is also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal trespass and possession of a firearm by a minor. Pringle and Hinebaugh will be tried as adults, the Cambria County District Attorney’s Office […]

A college student in Florida faces a slew of charges after tipsters informed authorities that he was planning to “enact a Columbine” on campus, referring to the 1999 Colorado school shooting that killed 15, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at a news conference. John Argis Hagins IV, 19, a licensed private pilot who attends Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and allegedly planned to carry out the mass shooting on the last day of school before winter break, was arrested Thursday outside his apartment. He is accused of attempted first-degree homicide, terrorism, and making written threats to injure or kill, according to […]

A Chinese scientist living in San Diego and working to develop an mRNA cancer vaccine gave her scientist husband confidential data from her employer so he could “further” his own vaccine research at his lab in China, a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Southern California federal court alleges. Last May, Chenyan Wu arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on a flight from Shanghai with as many as 1,000 undeclared, improperly packaged, and unlabeled centrifuge tubes containing research samples, the filing states. Wu’s luggage also held “multiple containers of lab chemicals,” which border officers believed were “potentially hazardous.” When the FBI interviewed Wu, […]

Detectives investigating the 2017 slayings of two Indiana teens have zeroed in on a mysterious social media profile they believe may be connected to the unsolved double murder. “While investigating the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, detectives with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the Indiana State Police have uncovered an online profile named anthony_shots,” the Indiana State Police announced Monday night. “This profile was being used from 2016 to 2017 on social media applications, including but not limited to, Snapchat and Instagram. The fictitious anthony_shots profile used images of a known male model and portrayed himself as being […]

A former Raytheon missile defense engineer who recently pleaded guilty to leaking U.S. military secrets claims he did so only because his desperate attempts to correct a potentially deadly software error he accidentally made went completely unheeded by authorities. “My approach and code were not adequately reviewed,” James Robert Schweitzer told The Daily Beast in his first public comments since his arrest. “I was told to ignore the anomaly that I introduced.” The federal government, however, saw things quite differently. At the time, Schweitzer was at loggerheads with the Pentagon over his use of medical marijuana, which caused him to be […]

The boyfriend of a mom-to-be in Texas has been charged with capital murder for allegedly killing the young woman after he found out she was pregnant. Police on Monday announced the arrest of Kwanmaine Travion Boyd, 25, who is accused of shooting 25-year-old Cavanna Smith in the head last month and leaving her dead body in the middle of a Houston street. She was four-and-a-half weeks pregnant at the time of her death, according to a criminal complaint filed in Harris County District Court. Boyd, who went on the run, is unemployed and has no income, but is responsible for $250 […]

A Colorado couple accused of stealing more than $2 million worth of real estate from a local man, then possibly planning to flee to non-extradition countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, or the African archipelago of Cape Verde, have been named as suspects in his mysterious death. Earlier this month, police in Longmont, Colorado arrested Savuth Yin, 26, and Yulisa Yin, 24, who are accused of forging deeds to illegally transfer ownership of multiple properties owned by 77-year-old Fred Oelke, a real estate broker whose body was found on Sept. 15 and identified publicly by authorities on Wednesday. Although cops have not […]

A Texas teen accused of setting fire to an Austin, Texas, synagogue kept a series of handwritten journals suggesting a virulent hatred for Jewish people, and memorialized his alleged Halloween night crime in one entry by scrawling, “I set fire to a synagogue.” That’s according to a federal complaint unsealed Monday, charging Franklin Barrett Sechriest, 18, with one count of arson, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Sechriest also seethed about African-Americans, casually using the n-word alongside banal scribblings about getting matched on Tinder and eating at Buffalo Wild Wings. The feds filed the complaint on Nov. […]

When 17-year-old Hang Lee vanished on Jan. 12, 1993, Whitney Houston’s sweet rendition of the Dolly Parton elegy “I Will Always Love You” was at the top of the charts. Lee, a refugee of Hmong descent who emigrated with her family from Laos to the U.S. as a little girl, was into the harder stuff. “She liked heavy metal, she liked that look,” Hang’s brother Koua told The Daily Beast, describing his sister’s big, teased hairdo and red-dyed bangs. “She liked Metallica, Skid Row, tight ’80s fashion. At that time, for Asians, they frowned on having hair like that.” Hang, who […]

A deputy sheriff involved in the shooting death of Andrew Brown, Jr., an unarmed Black man sitting in a car outside his North Carolina home, allegedly removed the bullets from his pistol in an attempt to cover up the extent of his actions while “stressing out about how many times he fired his weapon,” according to a bombshell federal court filing. An amended complaint for damages, filed Oct. 28 by a lawyer representing Brown’s family, claims Investigator Daniel Meads of the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office tampered with evidence after becoming nervous that he may have gone too far in shooting at […]

A Texas teen is facing felony arson charges for allegedly setting fire to an Austin synagogue on Halloween night. Franklin Barrett Sechriest, 18, was arrested Wednesday by criminal investigators with the Austin Fire Department. Sechriest was identified thanks to surveillance footage from the parking lot of Congregation Beth Israel before, during, and after the blaze, showing the license plate number of his Jeep—which led cops to Sechriest’s home in San Marcos, Texas, where lives with his mother, Nicole, according to a warrant for Sechriest’s arrest obtained by The Daily Beast. The fire caused approximately $25,000 worth of damage to the temple, […]

A security guard working at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston, where at least eight people died and hundreds more were seriously injured, was not in fact jabbed with a needle containing opioids, as was initially suggested by authorities, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference on Wednesday. On Saturday, Finner said that medical staff reported treating the guard with Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and said that emergency responders had observed what appeared to be a needle mark on the unnamed guard’s neck. He urged people not to jump to […]

The apparently well-connected teenage driver charged at long last with six felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly mowing down six bicyclists outside Houston after purposely belching a thick cloud of black diesel exhaust at them has been identified as the son of a competition livestock breeding family in the area. On Monday, lawyers for the injured cyclists named the 16-year-old suspect’s parents as Jason and Jennifer Arnold of Waller, Texas. The couple, who specialize in raising and showing sheep and goats and serve on the lamb committee of the Waller County Fair, have a 16-year-old son […]

Colorado authorities have identified the man who allegedly killed his wife and two of their children before killing himself in an apparent murder-suicide over the weekend as 55-year-old Christof M. Kreb, a local gun store owner and competitive shooter. Sheriff’s deputies discovered the four bodies following a 911 call from a child inside the home who told the dispatcher that one of his siblings wasn’t moving. Police identified the victims as Kreb’s wife, Yvette Siegert Kreb, age 50, and two of their eight children, Felicity and Barrett Kreb, 13 and 9. They were found dead in the sprawling Colorado Springs house […]

A Texas man charged with felony murder for allegedly beating his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son to death—then abandoning the victim’s three young brothers to fend for themselves in a filthy home alongside the decaying corpse—had subjected the children to regular physical abuse, breaking the middle child’s jaw in recent weeks, police said Wednesday. Brian Ward Coulter, 31, killed the boy, Kendrick Lee, with his fists and feet around Thanksgiving 2020, according to a criminal complaint filed in Harris County District Court. Initial reports listed Kendrick’s age as 9, but authorities later said he was 8. Coulter and the kids’ mom, Gloria Yvette […]

Investigators in New Mexico believe Alec Baldwin fired a live round on the set of Rust, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza announced Wednesday. Authorities have also recovered “possible additional live rounds” from the scene, Mendoza said. Following the Oct. 21 shooting, doctors removed a projectile from Souza’s shoulder, which Mendoza described as “the same live round that was fired from the revolver by Mr. Baldwin.” The gun used in the tragic accident has also been identified, he said. “We believe that we have in our possession the firearm that was fired […]

Leaders of a Nation of Islam offshoot that has been labeled a “cult,” separated children from their parents, held them incommunicado under highly restrictive conditions, and made them work up to 16 hours a day for no pay, according to a shocking indictment unsealed Tuesday in Kansas federal court. The 20-page filing accuses eight officials with the United Nation of Islam (UNOI)—a splinter group that in 1978 broke away from Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam—of conspiracy and forced labor. It includes a breathtaking array of additional allegations, claiming the group, among other things, denied the kids proper medical care, prohibited them […]

Three children found abandoned in a Texas apartment along with the skeletal remains of a 9-year-old boy believed to be their brother had been surviving in part thanks to a neighbor who brought them food and charged their cell phone after the home’s power was recently cut off, a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Daily Beast. The unidentified resident of the CityParc II complex in the Houston suburbs had been helping the kids, ages 7, 10, and 15, for at least the past couple of weeks, cops said. The 15-year-old boy said his parents left him […]

Personal items appearing to belong to “van-lifer” Brian Laundrie were discovered Wednesday at a park adjacent to a South Florida nature reserve searchers have been combing for weeks looking for any sign of the 23-year-old fugitive, the family’s lawyer said. “Chris and Roberta Laundrie went to the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park this morning to search for Brian,” attorney Steven Bertolino said in a statement. “The FBI and NPPD were informed last night of Brian’s parents’ intentions and they met Chris and Roberta there this morning. After a brief search off a trail that Brian frequented some articles belonging to Brian were […]

Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty on Wednesday to gunning down 14 students and three staff members in 2018 at Marjorie Douglas Stoneman High School. Cruz, 23, appeared before Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who explained the penalties Cruz is facing. Scherer told him that his guilty pleas precede a penalty phase during which a jury will decide whether Cruz will be sentenced to death or face life in prison. In all, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and another 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. “Life in prison means life with no parole—there’s no parole in […]

The husband of a missing California mom of three was arrested Tuesday for her murder, according to authorities. “Today, the Chula Vista Police Department is announcing the arrest of Larry Millete for the murder of his wife May,” the agency said in a news release. Millete has always maintained his innocence in his wife’s disappearance. Maya “May” Millete, 39, was last seen alive on January 7, 2021. She disappeared shortly before she and her husband were about to take their daughters—aged 4, 9, and 11—on a trip to the mountains. Police will provide further details at a press conference later this […]

Right-wing personality and talk radio host Dennis Prager, who once “proved” COVID was nothing to worry about by describing his habit of eating with dirty utensils in restaurants, has now contracted COVID. But, this wasn’t a bad thing, Prager insisted. In fact, getting sick with the virus was his plan all along, he announced Monday during his show, which streams daily on YouTube. “It is infinitely preferable to have natural immunity than vaccine immunity and that is what I have hoped for the entire time,” Prager told listeners from his home, where he is quarantining. “Hence… I have engaged with strangers, […]

The mysterious disappearance and death of “van-lifer” Gabby Petito has garnered an outsized amount of media attention, which has itself generated its own intense debate. Petito, 22, was strangled to death while road tripping across the U.S. with her 23-year-old fiancé, Brian Laundrie. After returning to Florida on Sept. 1 without Petito, Laundrie himself went missing shortly after being named a person of interest in the case. He has thus far not been charged with Petito’s murder, but is facing a fraud charge for allegedly using her debit card following her death. Last month, the Teton County Search and Rescue squad […]

On Oct. 5, Virginia realtor Soren Arn-Oelschlegel sold a house. “Congratulations to my out of town buyer,” a gleeful Arn-Oelschlegel wrote on Facebook. “I’m so happy I was able to find him a home that fit his needs! Do you want to be a happy buyer too? Call me!” Three days later, he was dead in a bizarre murder-suicide reportedly carried out by that very buyer—who was apparently dissatisfied with his purchase. Arn-Oelschlegel’s client, 84-year-old Albert A. Baglione, had been living in Alabama and signed a contract to buy the Portsmouth, Virginia property sight-unseen, sources told local outlet WAVY. He and […]

An apparently intractable conflict between a Florida condo board and a disabled 9/11 responder over him leaving his shoes outside his front door has become so toxic that the federal government has stepped in to try and resolve it. Charlie Burge worked for the New York City Department of Sanitation for 35 years, first hitting the pavement in 1981 and eventually overseeing nighttime operations in North Brooklyn. On September 11, 2001, Burge ran across the Brooklyn Bridge to help out at the World Trade Center when he saw the buildings burning. He spent more than 400 days clearing debris at ground […]

Shortly before 11 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2010, Teaneck, New Jersey, resident Angela Bombardi smelled something burning. She checked to make sure it wasn’t coming from her own home, then stepped outside to have a look. That’s when Bombardi realized the tidy Tudor-style house directly next door was on fire and she called 911. Firefighters were eventually able to beat back the blaze, which had started in a first-floor bedroom. But when they discovered the badly charred remains of 74-year-old Joan Davis inside, it soon became apparent that the fire had been set intentionally—in an attempt to cover up a murder. […]

In 1996, Latosha Clemons became the first-ever Black female firefighter hired by the city of Boynton Beach, Florida. Two decades later, she became the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Department’s first Black deputy chief. In 2019, Boynton’s public arts commission commissioned a mural to honor the city’s firefighters and rescue workers. One of the images included in the mural was to be based on a photo of three female Boynton Beach firefighters—two of whom were white, and Clemons. The mural, which was described by Boynton Beach City Manager Lori LaVerriere as a “significant and unique artwork,” was unveiled at the city’s new […]

When a Facebook spokesman on Monday needed to get a message out to the social network’s users, he turned to a competitor’s platform to do it. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products,” tweeted Facebook communications director Andy Stone. “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.” Without Facebook, many—at least temporarily—rediscovered Twitter. Bored social media users spent much of the afternoon getting creative on the one major platform they were still able to use. Every single one of Facebook’s apps, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, […]

An 18-year-old woman shot earlier this week by a school safety officer in Long Beach, California, will be taken off life support after her body is prepared for organ donation, a family spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast. Mona Rodriguez was shot Monday afternoon while sitting in a car near Long Beach’s Millikan High School. Police say she was shot in the upper body. Rodriguez’s family says she was shot in the head. “The transition has begun,” Jerlene Tatum, a community activist who has been by the Rodriguez family’s side for several days, said in a text message. At a news […]

A California teen is brain dead and on life support after being shot by a school safety officer, her family says—and they want the officer held to account. “I want justice for my girl, my baby momma, the love of my life,” Rodriguez’s boyfriend, Rafeul Chowdhury, said at a news conference on Wednesday. Mona Rodriguez, 18, was shot Monday afternoon while in a vehicle near Millikan High School in Long Beach. Police claim she was shot in the upper body. Her family insists she was shot in the head. Shortly after 3 p.m. that day, an unnamed officer from the Long […]

A Texas man accused of killing and dismembering three people before setting them ablaze in a dumpster told police he did it because he had “an in-depth knowledge of the bible and believed he was being called to commit sacrifices,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast. Jason Alan Thornburg, 41, was arrested Monday night by Fort Worth police on capital murder charges, and is being held at the county jail on $1 million bond, according to detention records. Det. Thomas O’Brien, one of the lead investigators on the case, confirmed Thornburg’s arrest to The Daily Beast. […]

A “nationwide surge” in the availability of bogus prescription pills containing fentanyl is “killing unsuspecting Americans at an unprecedented rate,” the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned Monday in an urgent bulletin. “More than 9.5 million counterfeit pills were seized so far this year, which is more than the last two years combined,” states the Public Safety Alert, the agency’s first in six years. “DEA laboratory testing reveals a dramatic rise in the number of counterfeit pills containing at least two milligrams of fentanyl, which is considered a lethal dose.” The number of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills seized by the DEA has soared […]

Nearly eight months after 19-year-old college freshman Adam Oakes died of alcohol poisoning following an alleged hazing at a fraternity party, 11 people have been indicted in connection with the tragic event. Richmond, Virginia, Police Department spokeswoman Tracy Walker confirmed to The Daily Beast that eight of the 11 have been arrested, but was unable to provide further information prior to an official announcement expected Friday afternoon. The names, ages, and exact charges facing the accused have not yet been released. Oakes, a first-year student at Virginia Commonwealth University who was too young to legally buy alcohol, was at a gathering […]

A person who saw doomed “van-life” couple Gabby Petito and fiancé Brian Laundrie fighting in Moab, Utah, told cops that “something definitely didn’t seem right,” according to a witness statement released by authorities. Petito and Laundrie set off in July to travel the U.S., visiting the country’s national parks and wilderness areas while living out of a converted 2012 Ford Transit Connect van. But although their online postings portrayed a blissful existence on the road, the couple’s relationship was in fact starting to fray by mid-August, a police report obtained by The Daily Beast revealed. On Sept. 1, Laundrie, 23, arrived […]

The last text Gabby Petito sent before she went missing while road-tripping across the U.S. with her fiancé set off alarm bells for her mother, who became fearful for the 22-year-old’s safety after receiving the “odd” message. That’s according to a newly-unsealed search warrant giving North Port, Florida, police permission to search a hard drive investigators found in Petito’s white van, which she and Brian Laundrie, 23, had been using to tour the country’s national parks. “The text message read, ‘Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls,’” the warrant states. “The reference to ‘Stan,’ was […]

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photo Getty/Miramar Police Department Shortly before 8:30 p.m. on May 22, 2002, Kim Battle arrived at her South Florida home and discovered her living room covered in blood. Battle immediately called 911, and officers from the Miramar Police Department were dispatched to the tidy three-bedroom rental. “The living room had a large amount of blood on the tiled floor,” a police report obtained by The Daily Beast said. “There was an appearance of a struggle in the living room as a chair was knocked over, a glass jar was broken on the floor, and […]

A U.S. drone strike in Kabul on Aug. 28 that military planners thought was targeting an ISIS-K terrorist in fact “killed as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children,” a top American general said at a Pentagon news conference on Friday. “Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,” General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters. Gen. Frank McKenzie briefs reporters on Friday. DoD At the time of the strike, McKenzie said he was confident, based upon the intelligence he had received, that it “had averted, an imminent threat to our forces […]

Utah police on Thursday released bodycam footage taken during the aftermath of a physical altercation between “van-lifer” Gabrielle Petito and her fiancé about two weeks before he inexplicably returned to Florida from a months-long road trip without her. Brian Laundrie, 23, was named by authorities this week as a person of interest in Petito’s bizarre disappearance. The two embarked on a cross-country trek in early July, leaving from the North Port, Florida, home they shared with Laundrie’s parents and slowly making their way to several national parks out west. Petito’s mother said she last spoke to her daughter on Aug. 25, […]

Teachers in New York City who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19 but have health conditions that still make them vulnerable to the virus allege the mayor is giving them an impossible choice: risk their lives by returning to the classroom or give up their jobs. Manhattan high school teacher and former investigative journalist Steven Edwards has Stage IV kidney cancer. He has been fully vaxxed since Feb. 11, but has no COVID antibodies due to chemotherapy treatments that “deplet[ed] the whole immune system—and that takes time to build back,” Edwards said Friday on a Zoom call with journalists. According to […]