Rain shrouds the skyline of midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building as a nor’easter storm moves into New York City on October 12, 2025, as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Two people died in flooded basements on Thursday after heavy rain overwhelmed streets and subway stations in New York City.
The New York Police Department confirmed the two deaths to ABC News.
A 39-year-old man was found unconscious and unresponsive in a flooded basement in Brooklyn, according to New York ABC station WABC. The FDNY Scuba Team recovered his body from the basement before he was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
In a separate incident in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, police said a 43-year-old man was found dead in a flooded boiler room, WABC reported.
Police are investigating both incidents.
More than 2 inches of rain fell in Brooklyn and Queens on Thursday, sparking flash flood warnings in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
Video captured submerged cars, flooded streets and water gushing into some subway stations.
The rain also struck Philadelphia, where a third death was reported. A woman was killed on Thursday when a tree fell on her car, according to Philadelphia ABC station WPVI,.
More than 1,200 flights were canceled in the U.S. amid Thursday’s rainy weather, with New York City’s three airports hit the hardest.
Thursday’s rain and wind were not from Hurricane Melissa, which battered the Caribbean this week, but from an inland storm system moving throughout the Northeast. The storm was one of the factors keeping Melissa away from the U.S.
ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.
A sign marks the location of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters building on April 30, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has filed terrorism charges against an Arizona man for his alleged role in the growing network of online predators known as “764,” whose worldwide followers use social media platforms to target, groom and push young teens into harming themselves and others.
An indictment unsealed Thursday in Arizona charged 21-year-old Baron Martin of Tucson with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, marking the first time that the Justice Department has leveled such charges against an alleged member of 764.
The move does not mean that the U.S. government has formally designated 764 as a terrorist organization like ISIS or Al-Qaeda, but it does signify that the government believes members of 764 engage in “terrorist activity” under U.S. law.
Martin was first arrested in December and indicted on three counts of cyberstalking and producing sexually explicit material of children. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.
The indictment unsealed Thursday adds 26 more charges, alleging that he was deeply involved in a “sadistic and masochistic” conspiracy to “systematically and methodically target” vulnerable teenagers who can be pushed into cutting themselves with sharp objects, creating sexually explicit and gore-filled videos and photos, torturing animals, or even killing themselves — all while on camera.
According to the indictment, while using 15 different monikers, Martin hosted and ran “group chats” associated with 764 on social media platforms, controlling access to them and making demands of victims, some of whom were extorted into participating.
The indictment cites nine specific victims who were allegedly targeted by Martin, ranging in age from 11 to 18.
In 2022, he allegedly forced a 13-year-old girl overseas to carve one of his online monikers — “Convict” — and other symbols on her body, causing “permanent disfigurement.” And, live on a video call with 15 others, he allegedly forced the girl to let her family dog attack her family’s hamster, and then he and the others made the victim stomp on the hamster’s head and feed it to the dog, while also recording it to share with even more people, the indictment says.
Also in 2022, after Martin got into an online dispute with another 13-year-old girl, he allegedly threatened to kill her grandmother — vowing that it would “send a message” — and he offered to pay someone $3,000 to commit the murder, according to the indictment and other court documents. He also allegedly “conducted a live extortion” of an 18-year-old overseas, who, after being repeatedly told to kill herself, was forced to cut a symbol into her forehead — after which Martin then allegedly shared a photo online of the girl’s bloody face.
In other court proceedings, federal prosecutors said that Martin also “participated in bomb threats, swatting and doxing campaigns, and alleged kidnappings.”
“This man’s alleged crimes are unthinkably depraved and reflect the horrific danger of 764,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “I urge parents to remain vigilant about the threats their children face online.”
In addition to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, the indictment unsealed Thursday charges Martin with conspiring to maim someone in a foreign country, seeking murder for hire, promoting and distributing animal torture material, and numerous child exploitation-related charges, including taking part in a child exploitation enterprise.
Authorities say that one of the main goals of 764 and similar networks is to sow chaos and bring down society.
They try to accomplish this by first befriending vulnerable teens online and then convincing them to share sexually explicit images or videos of themselves, experts say. That sexually explicit material is then used to blackmail victims into increasingly violent actions, and it escalates from there — with victims’ family members or pets threatened if victims stop complying.
Victims routinely end up being coerced into carving their tormentor’s online monikers into their own skin, mutilating themselves in other ways, attacking or threatening others, or torturing animals — all while capturing it on camera, so the videos or photos can be shared with others to boost one’s status within 764.
Predators also routinely promote neo-Nazi ideology, ISIS propaganda, and school shootings, desensitizing vulnerable teens to violence, authorities say.
Since the launch of the initial 764 group nearly five years ago — when the 15-year-old Texas boy who started it named it after the first three digits of his ZIP code — authorities say 764 has become a global movement, with an ever-expanding network of offshoots and subgroups that often rebrand and change their names to help keep social media companies and law enforcement from tracking them.
The FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are now looking at 764 and its offshoots as a potential form of domestic terrorism, even coining a new term to characterize the most heinous actors: “nihilistic violent extremists.”
Last month, FBI Director Kash Patel told a Senate panel that fighting 764 is now “a priority” within the FBI.
“We’re going after the new form of what I refer to as modern day terrorism in America, 764 crimes that involve harming our children by going after them online, causing self-mutilation, suicide, sexual abuse and steering them in the wrong direction,” Patel said before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
According to the FBI, federal authorities have now opened investigations into more than 300 people suspected of ties to 764 or its offshoots across the country, with each subject under investigation potentially having victimized multiple young teens.
The FBI and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office are looking for missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard. (FBI)
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Weeks into the “perplexing” search for missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, California authorities said they’ve served follow-up search warrants at her mom’s home, a storage locker and the rental car Melodee was last seen in.
Local detectives and FBI agents served the warrants on Thursday. Because they expected to need access to the home of Melodee’s mom, Ashlee Buzzard, for “an extended time, detectives escorted Ashlee to an alternate location that would not interfere with their ability to conduct a thorough search,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said.
Ashlee Buzzard has not cooperated with the investigation, according to authorities.
Melodee is still considered an at-risk missing person and no arrests have been made, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Last week, the sheriff’s office said it had narrowed down the window of Melodee’s disappearance to between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10.
Surveillance images of Melodee — in which she appears to be wearing a wig — were captured at a Santa Barbara-area rental car business on Oct. 7, authorities said.
The mother and daughter then went on a three-day road trip from Lompoc, California, to the Nebraska area, the sheriff’s office said.
The return trip went through Kansas, and then Ashlee Buzzard came home to Lompoc on Oct. 10 with the car she and Melodee had rented on Oct. 7 — but Melodee was not with her, the sheriff’s office said.
Officials in Pennsylvania are searching for Jairo Eliazar Ramirez-Lima, a man with “multiple active arrest warrants, including federal ICE detainers” who escaped police custody while handcuffed, according to the East Pikeland Township Police Department. (East Pikeland Township Police Department)
(NEW YORK) — A man in Pennsylvania with multiple warrants, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, is back in police custody after he escaped from officials while still wearing handcuffs, according to the East Pikeland Township Police Department.
Jairo Eliazar Ramirez-Lima, 41, escaped from police custody early Saturday morning while being transported from a local hospital following an arrest for driving under the influence, police said in a statement.
Despite being handcuffed, Ramirez-Lima “fled on foot from the hospital grounds,” police confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
On Friday, officials announced Ramirez-Lima was “captured,” with the East Pikeland Township Police Chief Michelle Major telling ABC Philadelphia station WPVI he was spotted at a Wawa in Phoenixville by an officer.
Police had warned that Ramirez-Lima was “considered dangerous.”
While police said there was “no known active threat to the public” when Ramirez-Lima was on the run, they said he has “multiple active arrest warrants, including federal ICE detainers and has a history of violence and weapons offenses.”
In addition to the DUI and escape charges, Ramirez-Lima was also charged with false identification to a law enforcement officer, tampering with public records, driving without a license, disregard to a traffic lane and careless driving, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
He also has a protection-from-abuse order against him in Maryland, WPVI.
The suspect’s escape remains under investigation and police said additional information will be released as it becomes available.
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference on October 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(DETROIT) — The FBI has thwarted “a potential terrorist attack” and arrested “multiple subjects” in Michigan, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend,” Patel posted on X.
“Thanks to the men and women of FBI and law enforcement everywhere standing guard 24/7 and crushing our mission to defend the homeland,” Patel continued.
A spokesperson for the FBI Detroit field office confirmed there was law enforcement activity in Dearborn and Inkster on Friday. “There is no current threat to public safety,” the spokesperson added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
he front entrance off Oak Street into the newly restored Oakland Museum of California on Thursday Apr. 29, 2010, in Oakland, Calif. (Photo By Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
(OAKLAND, Calif.) — More than 1,000 items and historical artifacts have been stolen in an early morning heist from a California museum’s off-site collection, according to police.
The Oakland Police Department, along with the FBI, are investigating a burglary that occurred just before 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, at the Oakland Museum of California’s storage facility, police said.
Authorities said that the suspect or suspects broke into the facility and stole more than 1,000 items from the museum’s collection, including “Native American baskets, jewelry [and] laptops,” according to a statement from the Oakland Police Department.
“The theft that occurred represents a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage,” said Oakland Museum of California Executive Director and CEO Lori Fogarty. “Most of these objects have been given to the Museum by generous donors. We are working in close partnership with the City of Oakland, the Oakland Police Department, and the FBI to see that these objects are returned.”
Authorities are still trying to determine how the heist was pulled off and where the artifacts might be, though the museum said law enforcement asked them not to say anything initially so that the investigation wouldn’t be jeopardized, according to ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO.
“I think it is very possible that the people who stole these items don’t really know themselves what they have and why it might be important and where to actually, if they’re trying to pass it off or sell it, where to take it,” Fogarty told KGO.
The FBI Art Crime Team — a specialized unit of approximately 20 agents across the United States who are tasked with investigating all matters related to art — has been assigned to this case and is currently investigating the heist alongside local authorities.
A photo of Taylor Taranto from a detention memo released by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (U.S. District Court)
(WASHINGTON) — A day after the Justice Department withdrew a sentencing memo that described the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as being carried out by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” the convicted Jan. 6 participant accused in the case is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Federal prosecutors Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were informed Wednesday that they would be put on leave after filing the memo in the case of Taylor Taranto, who was convicted on firearms and threat charges related to a June 2023 arrest near the home of former President Barack Obama, after Taranto was pardoned by President Donald Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
“On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum said. “Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, D.C., by entering the U.S. Capitol Building.”
The memo also detailed how Taranto traveled to former President Obama’s home only after a Truth Social post from then-former President Trump that included Obama’s address.
It’s unclear if Valdivia or White were given a reason for their suspensions, though the moves come following months of turmoil in the Washington, D.C., U.S. attorney’s office where multiple career prosecutors faced removals or demotions related to their involvement in prosecuting the more than 1,500 defendants charged in connection with the Capitol attack.
Late Wednesday, the Justice Department, in a highly unusual move, withdraw the original sentencing memo and replaced it with one in which the references to Jan. 6 and Trump’s Truth social account were eliminated.
Taranto was scheduled to appear at Thursday’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump-appointed judge who has described the Jan. 6 attack in serious terms.
Following Trump’s reelection victory in November, Judge Nichols said it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if Trump were to pardon Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump subsequently granted sweeping pardons and commutations to all Jan. 6 defendants on his first day in office.
In this handout satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Melissa churns through the Caribbean Sea, captured at 15:20Z on October 28, 2025. NOAA via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — From the ground, chaos reigned across Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa as residents emerged from the storm to find their communities shattered, their homes lying in ruins along with streets left awash in mud, debris and dangling power lines.
From the air, the picture of the widespread devastation came into a sobering focus as Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness released videos on social media of his tour on Wednesday of the hardest hit areas of the western part of his country.
“The most terrifying experience of my life, and I would not want to see it again,” a staff member of the Black River Hospital told Holness as he was filmed assessing the damage to the medical facility in the coastal community.
Holness praised the hospital workers for continuing to care for patients through the horrific Category 5 storm, even when the power went out and they were forced to use flashlights and lanterns to see.
One hospital staffer described having to dodge pieces of flying glass and other debris as the storm blew out windows and shook the facility.
During a news conference Thursday morning, Daryl Vaz, the country’s minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transport, said nearly 500,000 Jamaican Public Service customers remained without power, or about 72% of the utility company’s customers.
The number of deaths from the storm was still being assessed on Thursday. The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed on Wednesday that at least three people died in Jamaica in storm-related incidents. Other hurricane-related deaths occurred in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, officials said.
Sen. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said Thursday that the Jamaica Defense Force has dedicated a helicopter to the recovery of bodies.
Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, declined to provide a death toll, but said, “There has been casualties and we do anticipate based on our information that they’ll be more.”
McKenzie added, “I’ve been hearing some stories that I don’t want to repeat and I’m not going to repeat those stories because the police have not confirmed those reports.”
McKenzie said that about 13,000 people remained in shelters across Jamaica on Thursday.
Video footage taken during Prime Minister Holness’ helicopter tour of the hard-hit areas showed communities left in ruins. From the air, Holness witnessed entire neighborhoods devastated, with numerous homes missing roofs and walls. The videos showed twisted metal, splinted wood, and chunks of broken concrete strewn across the green landscape for miles.
Black River — where Hurricane Melissa, packing 185 mph winds, made landfall on Tuesday — appeared to be one of the most devastated towns that Holness encountered.
In all directions, businesses, churches and homes appeared to be damaged or destroyed.
In one of the videos, Holness told residents that 90% of the structures in Black River and nearby St. Elizabeth sustained damage.
Some coastal areas of Jamaica, including Black River, were also hit with a storm surge of up to 13 feet, officials said.
The Emergency Operation Center in Black River was also damaged, hampering search-and-rescue efforts in the area, Superintendent Coleridge Minto of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said in a video statement posted on social media Wednesday afternoon.
“We are immobile. When I say immobile, police units are down,” Minto said on Wednesday. “At this point in time, we are unable to do any rescuing; we are unable to respond. So, we are trying to let everybody know that the situation here is devastating.
Mento said all buildings in Black River sustained damage, including court offices, supermarkets and bakeries.
A container storing relief supplies was turned upside down by the storm, damaging everything inside, Minto said.
“There is urgent need for support,” Minto said.
On Wednesday, Holness posted a statement on social media, saying his nation was “ravaged” by the hurricane and its torrential rain. Holness declared the entire island nation a disaster area.
“I know many, especially those in the worst-affected parishes, are feeling disheartened,” Holness said in a social media post. “Your homes may have been damaged or destroyed, and your communities and towns no longer look the same.”
During his tour of St. Elizabeth, Holness said crews were working to clear roads covered in mud, toppled trees and power poles so that emergency crews can reach devastated areas.
On Thursday, Dixon said emergency crews on foot reached the town of Westmorland in the westernmost province of Jamaica by “cutting their way on foot through blocked roads.”
Authorities said some rural areas of the island, including the hilly and mountainous regions, received up to 49 inches of rain, triggering landslides.
Much of St. Elizabeth Parish, one of Jamaica’s largest parishes with a population of more than 150,000, was left underwater by the storm, authorities told ABC News.
The only public hospital in St. Elizabeth Parish lost power and its roof and had to be evacuated, officials said.
Search-and-rescue operations are underway across Jamaica.
All airports in Jamaica, including the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, have been closed since Monday, but some were beginning to reopen on Thursday.
Esther Pinnock, spokesperson for the Jamaica Red Cross, told ABC News on Wednesday that communication has been lost with some hard-hit communities.
“So, we’re not able to get what’s happening in such locations,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said infrastructure across the island has been damaged and that some communities were cut off from fresh running water.
“Interventions are being made to address those concerns,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said some areas of the island that suffered widespread damage from Melissa were still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 hurricane storm that pummeled the island in July 2024.
“Emotionally and from a mental perspective, yes, we are just rebuilding our livelihood, and now we have to start all over again,” Pinnock said.
After passing across Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa took aim at Cuba, where it made landfall early Wednesday as as Category 3 storm near the the city of Chivirico in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
Images emerging from Cuba in the aftermath of the hurricane, showed collapsed structures and people digging through destroyed homes in search of survivors and personal belongings.
On Thursday morning, Melissa was still a Category 2 hurricane moving north-northeast across the Atlantic Ocean at 21 mph. It is expected to pass west of Bermuda late Thursday night and into Friday morning.
A hurricane warning has been issued for Bermuda as winds are expected to top 70 mph.
(NEW YORK) — Sean “Diddy” Combs arrived Thursday at the New Jersey federal prison where he will serve his four-year sentence for transportation for the purposes of prostitution, multiple sources told ABC News.
Combs was transferred this morning from MDC-Brooklyn to FCI Fort Dix, the facility his legal team requested because it offers a special drug treatment problem that, if completed successfully, could knock time off his sentence.
Combs is not being housed in the prison’s general population but in the special drug program unit, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Combs is asking a federal appeals court to expedite his appeal of his conviction on two prostitution-related charges, arguing he could finish his prison sentence before his appeal is heard on a normal timetable.
Combs is appealing his conviction and his sentence.
“An expedited briefing and argument schedule is critical to ensure that Mr. Combs’s appeal of his sentence does not become moot while the appeal is pending,” defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro said in a new filing.
She said Combs has already served approximately 14 months of his 50-month sentence, and it is unclear how much additional time he will ultimately serve due to his potential eligibility for reductions.
Earlier this week, the Bureau of Prisons posted what the agency believes to be Combs’ release date from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which is set for May 8, 2028 — although it can change.
Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution after an eight-week trial in July. The jury acquitted Combs of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges he faced.
In his appeal, Combs plans to argue to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that prosecutors misapplied the law.
“Sean’s appeal will challenge the unfair use of the Mann Act, an infamous statute with a sordid history, to prosecute him for sex with consenting adults,” Shapiro said.
He has said his counts of conviction should not apply because he had no financial motive for transporting male escorts. Instead he said he wanted to watch them have sex with his girlfriends.
Sunset at the Burning Man festival on Sunday, September 3, 2023. (Photo by Kathy Baird/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev.) — It’s been two months since a Burning Man attendee was found dead in a pool of blood at the annual event in Black Rock City, Nevada, and as officials continue to search for a suspect, law enforcement experts told ABC News the crime will “not be a quick solve.”
Vadim Kruglov, a 37-year-old from Russia who was described by his family as “talented, bright and inspiring,” was found dead at the event on Aug. 30 at approximately 9:14 p.m., the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said in September.
As other attendees were celebrating the burning of the large wooden “man” that marks the end of the event, officials said a deputy was alerted by another participant that there was a man “lying in a pool of blood,” with officials “immediately” responding to the campsite.
An attendee at the event, who asked not to be named, told ABC News she was traveling back to her campsite that evening when she was rerouted by a large police presence nearby.
It wasn’t until after she left Burning Man on Sunday that she found out a homicide had occurred at the event.
“I felt so unprotected,” the participant, who said she was not interviewed by police at the scene, told ABC News.
The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests from ABC News for comment on the status of the case.
“Burning Man Project is committed to the safety of our community and to supporting those working to bring justice in this tragic case,” event officials said in a press release in September.
While many unknowns remain surrounding Kruglov’s death, and the search for a suspect continues, ABC News contributor and former FBI special agent Richard Frankel said there are “several investigative steps” officials can take before ruling the homicide a “closed” or “cold” case.
Murder weapon could indicate suspect had relationship with victim: Former FBI agent
Three weeks after Kruglov’s murder, officials announced they found the knife allegedly used in the killing, a discovery Frankel said could shed light on the potential suspect’s motive or possibly provide DNA evidence.
When officials announced the discovery of the weapon, they said Kruglov’s death appeared to have been caused by a single stab wound, which ABC News contributor and retired FBI agent Brad Garrett said is a “personal” manner of killing and could indicate the suspect had a relationship with the victim.
“Using a knife on someone is highly personal. It’s one thing to be 10 feet away and shoot somebody. It’s another to literally have to be against them to kill them,” Garrett said.
However, Frankel said a possible motive will not be able to be determined until the medical examiner conducts a further investigation into the knife-entry wound, specifically the “way the entry went in, the way the knife was facing and the pressure put forward or backward as the knife was stabbed.”
Officials have not yet shared the medical examiner’s report with the public, nor have they stated when the report would be released.
Frankel also said it is possible the suspect and the victim had some kind of prior relationship, but also recognized the killing could have simply occurred “in the heat of the moment.”
“Being that it’s at Burning Man — a lot of alcohol and drugs — you just don’t know who the players are at that time and at that location, and it could be just somebody who lost it and stabbed the first person that you could see,” Frankel said.
There were 44 arrests at this year’s event, officials said, ranging from possession of a controlled substance and assault with a deadly weapon to domestic battery, sexual assault and burglary.
Investigators must take the suspect’s ‘life apart’
Another potential avenue to reveal more details about the suspect is to take a deeper look at Kruglov’s past, Garrett said.
“You really take his life apart,” Garrett said, encouraging investigators to learn about Kruglov’s connections — “if there was someone he complained about, someone he owed money to or someone he had gotten into a dispute with.”
Kruglov, originally from Russia, was described as “true hero of Burning Man” who “poured his soul” into the community, according to a GoFundMe created by loved ones that was shared on the event’s press release.
“Vadim poured his soul into our community: building camp, creating art, helping others and always sharing his kindness and energy,” his loved ones wrote on the GoFundMe. “His contributions will forever remain part of the Burn’s history.”
Kruglov was attending Burning Man for the first time, according to a statement from the event.
Garrett said the suspect has the potential to be have “some connection” to Kruglov’s life, even prior to his trip to Burning Man. But, those possibilities could only be confirmed by analyzing his past, looking through his social media and speaking to friends and family, he said.
‘At the mercy’ of the public
Due to the challenges involved in this investigation — including that there was “little to no cellphone coverage,” the crime scene was a temporary city in a remote area and there is no known surveillance footage of the crime — Garrett said officials are “at the mercy of other people giving you information.”
“You never want to be in a position where you’re at the mercy of other people giving you information, but unfortunately, this case may just lend itself to completing a thorough investigation — not getting anywhere as to who the suspect might be — and then you have to regularly get the case back in front of the public to potentially generate more leads,” Garrett said.
“Somebody’s going to have to keep this case alive to potentially solve it,” Garrett added.
But, despite the time that passes without a suspect in custody growing by the day, Garrett said that does not make the case less solvable.
“One phone call, one piece of evidence that directs them toward someone with some corroboration that they could well have been involved in this could lead to an arrest,” Garrett said.
