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A Connecticut woman appeared in court on Thursday after she was charged with allegedly attempting to poison a man with whom she shares a child by putting antifreeze in his wine at his home in Ridgefield, according to the Connecticut State Police.

Kristen Hogan, 33, was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of interference with an officer after she admitted to pouring ethylene glycol — a “poisonous ingredient within antifreeze and other household products” — in a bottle of wine from which the man drank, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

During her court appearance on Thursday, Hogan’s bail was set at $1 million. She was told not to contact several individuals placed under protective orders and required to surrender all firearms.

On Sept. 12, police interviewed the 34-year-old male victim, who had been hospitalized “sometime in early August” and underwent a blood test that revealed he had ethylene glycol in his system, the affidavit said.

The victim, who has not been identified, said during the interview that he had “family over for dinner and that his stepmother had brought an unopened bottle of wine,” officials said. The victim and his family drank some of the wine, with the remainder being “corked and placed in the fridge at the end of the night,” officials said.

Then on Aug. 10, five days after the family dinner, the victim said he “consumed a small amount of the same wine,” went to bed and then “woke up in the middle of the night multiple times and became increasingly ill,” officials said.

At 6 a.m. the next day, the victim “woke up vomiting and called his father for advice,” who directed him to call his mother, who lived in the area, officials said.

Once at his home, the victim’s mother found her son “slurring his words, staggering, and vomiting,” and then decided to take him to the hospital, officials said.

The hospital “initially believed he was experiencing a stroke” but then determined that the victim was “exhibiting signs of an ethylene glycol poisoning,” the affidavit said. The victim was then placed on dialysis and admitted to the ICU, officials said.

Once authorities arrived at the hospital, the victim told them that he believed Hogan, with whom he shares a child, had poisoned the wine “based off the fact her phone uploaded data” to his Wi-Fi router a few days earlier and that she was the “last person other than himself to be in the residence prior to him drinking the already opened wine,” officials said.

The victim told officials he “believed that a motive for him being poisoned is the fact that Hogan would become the full owner of the residence and would gain full-time custody of their child,” officials said.

On Sept. 30, a final lab report indicated that “ethylene glycol was detected in the wine,” officials said.

Police also went through Hogan’s phone, which revealed searches for “various lethal amounts of poisons” and “how much mono ethylene glycol would kill you” after the victim was hospitalized, the affidavit said.

In an interview with police, Hogan said she and the victim had been separated since May but that she had “more recently started living back at the same residence” where the victim lived, officials said.

Hogan also said she “never intended to kill him, but just wanted to make him sick as payback for being mentally abusive,” the affidavit said.

Officials said Hogan had also claimed she was in Rhode Island when she was supposed to be in court with the victim on Aug. 7 regarding a complaint she had filed but that she was actually at the victim’s residence, to which she had full access, the affidavit said.

Hogan also told officials that she has poured “a very small amount” of the same substance into the man’s iced tea bottle on a separate date, the affidavit said.

“If undetected or untreated, ethylene glycol ingestion can cause serious or fatal toxicity,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a statement to ABC News, Hogan’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, said it is “premature to comment on any specifics.”

“What we know is that Kristen is a loving mother who misses her children dearly right now. These are just accusations and we will be diligently investigating and defending her against these claims,” Sherman said in a statement.

Her next court date is scheduled for Dec. 2.

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(PHILADELPHIA) — A 23-year-old Philadelphia woman has now been missing for nearly a week, with police saying she was being harassed by an unknown individual before disappearing.

Kada Scott was last seen by her mother on Saturday evening when she was leaving for work at a nearby nursing home, police said.

Scott arrived at work but left “prior to her shift’s completion,” and has not been seen since, John Craig, captain of the Philadelphia Police Department, said during a press conference on Wednesday. It was not clear what time Scott left work, but officials said her shift typically was from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“This is completely out of character,” Craig said during the press conference.

She was reported missing to police on Sunday, with law enforcement saying they have “some concern, more so than usual” regarding her disappearance due to worrying phone calls she was receiving.

“In the days leading up to her disappearance, Ms. Scott related to her family and friends that an unknown individual or person had been harassing her via phone,” Craig said.

Craig said officials have not identified the person who was allegedly harassing Scott, but are continuing to investigate “very thoroughly.”

Police are canvassing the neighborhood for video, interviewing friends and family and looking at Scott’s cellphone data — including taking a “deep dive” of her social media — in their efforts to locate Scott. Officials are also speaking to Scott’s co-workers at the nursing home, Craig said.

“We have no cellphone activity or social media activity, and she has not reached out to family or friends,” Craig said.

Officials were able to recover Scott’s vehicle, which was located in the parking lot of the nursing home where she worked, Craig said.

Scott, who officials described as a “very bright, energetic woman,” is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair, police said.

“I just need her to come home and be safe. That’s what I fear — she’s not safe,” Scott’s mother, Kim Matthews, told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.

Scott’s name has also been entered into the National Crime Information Center database, Craig said.

Anyone who has information on Scott’s whereabouts is urged to call 215-686-3353, police said.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A woman has been accused of using dating apps to meet men and then burglarize their homes, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Adva Lavie is wanted for a string of burglaries in which she allegedly targeted older men, posing as a romantic companion on virtual dating platforms and social media, according to officials.

The suspect is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 104 lbs. with brunette hair and hazel eyes. Lavie is believed to drive a black Porsche SUV or white Mercedes-Benz.

She is also known to use the aliases Mia Ventura, Shoshana or Shana, according to officials.

When contacted by ABC News, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they had no additional information to provide about the suspect or her alleged crimes.

Officials are asking anyone with information about Lavie or incidents in which she may have been involved to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or Los Angeles Police Department.

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(PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind.) — An Indiana woman who was reported missing last week following a “suspicious” fire in her house has been found alive, authorities said. 

Britney Gard, 46, last had contact with her family the evening of Sept. 30, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. She was considered a missing endangered person “due to her unknown whereabouts,” the sheriff’s office said.

Following an extensive investigation, she was found in a wooded area about 2 1/2 miles from her home, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday evening. She was being cleared by medical staff and no additional details were available, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities responded to Gard’s home on Oct. 1, following a 911 call for a fire at her home in Bainbridge, located about 40 miles west of Indianapolis, the sheriff’s office said. Smoke was reported coming from the residence around 7:40 p.m., the office said.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze, which investigators believe is “suspicious in nature,” Putnam County Sheriff Jerrod Baugh said in a statement on Friday. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Baugh said in an update on Wednesday.

No one was found in the fire-damaged home, and attempts by family and friends to contact Gard following the fire have been unsuccessful, the sheriff’s office said. She was not located following a drone-assisted search of the area and searches of a pond on the property following the fire, the sheriff’s office said.

Gard was supposed to attend her daughter’s volleyball game on Oct. 1, but did not show up, her sister, Stephanie Bowen, told Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV.

“Her car’s at home, her purse is at home. She’s nowhere to be found, and the house is on fire. It makes no sense,” Bowen told WRTV on Monday.

“I just feel like there’s something here bigger that we don’t know,” she said.

The search continued this week for the mother of two, with dozens of people, including her sisters, looking through cornfields and wooded areas near Gard’s property on Monday, WRTV reported.

Drones were deployed in the area, and conservation officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have been conducting searches of the ponds at the residence and in the surrounding area, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Detectives also worked with the FBI and Indiana State Police, “looking for any leads into the current and past locations of any and all devices that could lead investigators to the location of Britney Gard,” Baugh said Wednesday.

Amid the search, Bowen urged people to be “vigilant” and to check their home security cameras.

“Britney, we love you,” she told WRTV on Monday. “We hope to see you safely return home.”

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(SAN FRANSCISCO) — Four people, including two children, have been found dead in a “suspicious” incident inside a San Francisco home, authorities said.

San Francisco police officers responded to a home on the 900 block of Monterey Boulevard at approximately 1:23 p.m. on Thursday to perform a well-being check on a family residing in the home. But when the officers arrived, they discovered four “unresponsive individuals” who were declared dead on scene, according to a statement from the Sam Francisco Police Department.

Police said the deaths appeared to be an isolated incident, reiterating that there is no general threat to the public, but also calling the deaths “suspicious” in nature.

Officers say two of the four people found dead are kids, according to ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO.

Neighbors who live next to the family say that they are heartbroken.

“I was just coming back from school, and I heard it from my mom and I just, you know, my heart dropped,” Teo Brouwers, who lives next door to the home, told KGO.

“I don’t have the words right now. I’m in bit of shock. We are in shock, it’s a tragedy and we’re thinking about the family. We are processing the information right now,” Belinda Hanart, who also lives next door, said to KGO.

“Our bedroom is on their side, and we have two dogs so. There was no noise, nothing, and I think it was the most disturbing part we didn’t hear anything. Nothing,” Hanart continued. “We knew it was a family of four with two girls. The older one was probably 12- to 13-years-old and a dog, and it was a very normal family with normal family routine,” said Hanart.

The names of the dead have not yet been released and police are not saying what they believe happened, but did confirm that crimes were committed inside the home.

Investigators were asked if an attacker or assailant could have been one of the four found dead in the home, according KGO.

“That is a possibility. We’re not confirming any of that at this time but that is a possibility of this incident,” said Officer Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department.

“We heard them more than we saw them and it was just normal family life, like kids in the garden trying to get the dog inside, and having barbecue for summer nights, that’s it. Just like us,” said Hanart.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting a parallel investigation and will determine the cause and manner of death.

The San Francisco Police Department Homicide Detail was notified of the suspicious deaths and is leading the ongoing investigation.

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(FRANKLIN COUNTY, Pa.) — Two state troopers were wounded in a shooting and the suspect was killed after a car chase ended in an exchange of gunfire in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

Both of the troopers were rushed to the hospital. One is in critical condition and the other is in serious condition, according to authorities.

The troopers were responding to a reported retail theft at Dicks Sporting Goods in Chambersburg shortly after 6 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release.

The suspects in the theft fled the store, traveling toward nearby Interstate 81 and were pursued by the troopers, who eventually used spike strips to stop the vehicle, according to state police.

When the vehicle came to a stop off the road, two female suspects followed orders and got out of the vehicle to be taken into custody, state police said.

The male suspect, however, began shooting at troopers, authorities said, striking two of them. The troopers fired back, fatally wounding the suspect.

Authorities haven’t released the identities of the troopers who were wounded or the suspected shooter.

State police and the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting.

Franklin County, which is located in south-central Pennsylvania, is home to 155,000 residents and its county seat is Chambersburg.

In a statement on social media, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he was praying for the officers.

“Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers are the very best of us — running towards danger every day to keep our communities safe,” Shapiro said.

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(RIDGEFIELD, Conn.) — A Connecticut mother is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday after she was charged with allegedly attempting to poison a man with whom she shares a child by putting antifreeze in his wine at his home in Ridgefield, according to the Connecticut State Police.

Kristen Hogan, 33, was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of interference with an officer after she admitted to pouring ethylene glycol — a “poisonous ingredient within antifreeze and other household products” — in a bottle of wine from which the man drank, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

On Sept. 12, police interviewed the 34-year-old male victim, who had been hospitalized “sometime in early August” and underwent a blood test that revealed he had ethylene glycol in his system, the affidavit said.

The victim, who has not been identified, said during the interview that he had “family over for dinner and that his stepmother had brought an unopened bottle of wine,” officials said. The victim and his family drank some of the wine, with the remainder being “corked and placed in the fridge at the end of the night,” officials said.

Then on Aug. 10, five days after the family dinner, the victim said he “consumed a small amount of the same wine,” went to bed and then “woke up in the middle of the night multiple times and became increasingly ill,” officials said.

At 6 a.m. the next day, the victim “woke up vomiting and called his father for advice,” who directed him to call his mother, who lived in the area, officials said.

Once at his home, the victim’s mother found her son “slurring his words, staggering, and vomiting,” and then decided to take him to the hospital, officials said.

The hospital “initially believed he was experiencing a stroke” but then determined that the victim was “exhibiting signs of an ethylene glycol poisoning,” the affidavit said. The victim was then placed on dialysis and admitted to the ICU, officials said.

Once authorities arrived at the hospital, the victim told them that he believed Hogan, with whom he shares a child, had poisoned the wine “based off the fact her phone uploaded data” to his Wi-Fi router a few days earlier and that she was the “last person other than himself to be in the residence prior to him drinking the already opened wine,” officials said.

The victim told officials he “believed that a motive for him being poisoned is the fact that Hogan would become the full owner of the residence and would gain full-time custody of their child,” officials said.

On Sept. 30, a final lab report indicated that “ethylene glycol was detected in the wine,” officials said.

Police also went through Hogan’s phone, which revealed searches for “various lethal amounts of poisons” and “how much mono ethylene glycol would kill you” after the victim was hospitalized, the affidavit said.

In an interview with police, Hogan said she and the victim had been separated since May but that she had “more recently started living back at the same residence” where the victim lived, officials said.

Hogan also said she “never intended to kill him, but just wanted to make him sick as payback for being mentally abusive,” the affidavit said.

Officials said Hogan had also claimed she was in Rhode Island when she was supposed to be in court with the victim on Aug. 7 regarding a complaint she had filed but that she was actually at the victim’s residence, to which she had full access, the affidavit said.

Hogan also told officials that she has poured “a very small amount” of the same substance into the man’s iced tea bottle on a separate date, the affidavit said.

“If undetected or untreated, ethylene glycol ingestion can cause serious or fatal toxicity,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a statement to ABC News, Hogan’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, said it is “premature to comment on any specifics.”

“What we know is that Kristen is a loving mother who misses her children dearly right now. These are just accusations and we will be diligently investigating and defending her against these claims,” Sherman said in a statement.

Hogan’s bail was set to $1,000,000. She is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday at 10 a.m. local time, according to court records.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — The last of 10 inmates who had been on the lam following a New Orleans jailbreak in May has been captured, police said Wednesday.

Derrick Groves, 28, was apprehended in Atlanta following a “brief stand-off,” Louisiana State Police said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(LAS VEGAS) — A 12-year-old girl has died after she was hit by a school bus while riding her bicycle in Las Vegas, authorities said, marking the second middle schooler in the city to die in a crash within one week.

The girl — identified by the coroner’s office as Haylee Ryan — was struck at about 3:23 p.m. Monday and was flung onto a parked SUV before falling to the ground, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said.

She was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died on Tuesday, police said.

Dozens of students were on the bus at the time of the crash, police said, adding that none of them were hurt.

The bus driver and the SUV driver both stayed at the scene and showed no signs of impairment, police said.

Haylee was heading home from school at the time of the accident, according to a GoFundMe page.

Haylee “was a sweet, pure, and fiercely creative child, who dreamed of becoming an artist one day,” the GoFundMe page said. “Haylee’s kindness and spirit touched everyone who knew her.”

Just days earlier, on Friday morning, a 12-year-old boy was crossing a street in an implied crosswalk when he was struck by a car, Las Vegas police said. The boy, who was on the way to school at the time, later died from his injuries, Clark County School District Superintendent Jhone Ebert said.

The driver fled the scene and was later arrested on hit-and-run and driving under the influence charges, police said.

“Both of these students had unlimited potential — potential they will never have a chance to realize,” the superintendent said at a news conference.

Dozens of Las Vegas students have been struck by cars on the way to or from school so far this school year, Ebert said, citing the school district police.

“It’s enough. … Right now we need immediate action, with the community’s help, to protect our children,” she said.

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(LOS ANGELES) — An arrest has been made in connection with the Palisades Fire, which caused widespread destruction in Los Angeles County and killed a dozen people earlier this year, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, is accused of “maliciously” igniting a fire on Jan. 1 in the Pacific Palisades that ultimately erupted into the Palisades Fire, the Department of Justice said.

The New Year’s Day brush fire was suppressed by fire crews but continued to smolder underground before high winds caused it to surface and spread nearly a week later, “causing what became known as the Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles City history,” acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Rinderknecht has been charged by criminal complaint with destruction of property by means of fire. He was arrested on Tuesday near his residence in Florida and is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Orlando federal court on Wednesday, officials said.

The Palisades Fire erupted on Jan. 7, burning more than 23,000 acres over more than three weeks and destroying nearly 7,000 structures, according to California fire officials.

It ignited the same day as the Eaton Fire, which burned more than 14,00 acres in Los Angeles County, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 19 people, according to officials.

The fires started burning during strong Santa Ana winds, which, combined with dry conditions, helped their ability to spread quickly. This spread prompted mass evacuations.

The Palisades Fire decimated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

What became known as the Lachman Fire was detected at 12:12 a.m. on Jan. 1 on a hilltop in the Pacific Palisades, according to the DOJ.

Rinderknecht, who the DOJ said was working as an Uber driver at the time and once lived in the Pacific Palisades — had dropped a customer off in the area of the fire, according to the complaint. Two of his passengers that night allegedly told law enforcement later that he appeared “agitated and angry,” the complaint stated.

The complaint alleges Rinderknecht caused the fire by lighting a combustible material, such as vegetation or paper, with an open flame, likely a lighter.

He attempted to contact 911 several times to report the fire, before ultimately getting through once he had cell service, according to the complaint. He allegedly made a three-minute screen-recording of his iPhone while attempting to call 911 and asking ChatGPT, “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?” according to the complaint.

“Based on my training and experience and this investigation, this indicates that RINDERKNECHT wanted to preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire and he wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit in the complaint.

Essayli said the suspect left in his car but then returned and filmed firefighters responding to the blaze.

There is no indication that anyone else was in the area at the time the fire started, Essayli said.

Investigators interviewed Rinderknecht on Jan. 24, during which he allegedly lied about where he was when he saw the Lachman Fire, according to the DOJ.

“He claimed he was near the bottom of a hiking trail when he first saw the fire and called 911, but geolocation data from his iPhone carrier showed that he was standing in a clearing 30 feet from the fire as it rapidly grew,” the DOJ said in a press release.

Essayli said he didn’t want to discuss motive, though he pointed to digital evidence included in the complaint of an image Rinderknecht allegedly generated in July 2024 using ChatGPT, showing in part “a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it.”

“You could see some of his thought process in the months leading up, where he was generating some really concerning images up on ChatGPT, which appears to show a dystopian city being burned down,” Essayli said.

The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, the DOJ said.

Essayli said the DOJ will make determinations on additional charges against Rinderknecht in the coming days.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell called the investigation into the Palisades Fire “extremely intensive and thorough.”

“I’m proud of the professionalism and dedication shown by our detectives and the team who work collaboratively with our federal, state and local partners,” he said during the press briefing. “That teamwork ultimately led to the arrest of the suspect responsible for this devastating crime.”

Over the past eight months, investigators pursued more than 200 leads, conducted hundreds of interviews and collected more than 13,000 pieces of evidence, including fire debris, digital data and DNA samples, as part of the probe, according to Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Los Angeles Field Division.

“We have a lot of different data that all concluded where this fire started, and the fire behavior from that origin, from that Lachman Fire, was clearly established in the Palisades Fire,” Cooper said at the press briefing.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city will release the Los Angeles Fire Department’s report on the Palisades Fire “shortly,” now that an arrest has been made.

“More than 9 months ago, our city faced one of the most devastating periods our region had ever seen. Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest,” she said in a statement. “Each day that families are displaced is a day too long and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.”

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