National

(WASHINGTON) — An exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that takes a critical look at the United States’ response to Nazi Germany is slated to temporarily close after Labor Day for upgrades, sparking concern among some staff over what potential changes could be made amid President Donald Trump’s sweeping review of museums and their programming, sources tell ABC News.

On Sept. 2, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to temporarily close its “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit through Feb. 2026 to conduct an “upgrade,” according to an internal email sent to staff in June and obtained by ABC News.

The staff-wide email, sent after Trump signed an executive order in March directing federal agencies and the Smithsonian to eliminate what he called divisive and “anti-American” content from museums and national parks, informed staff that exhibit teams at the museum would work to “upgrade the gallery and the exhibition.”

“The current plan is to close the exhibition on September 2, 2025 (the day after Labor Day) and reopen on February 28, 2026 (just before the busy season),” the email read. “Once closed, Technical Services, Operations, Exhibit Experience, and Collections Services will work together to upgrade the gallery and the exhibition. Once the work is completed, ‘Americans and the Holocaust’ can remain open through 2032 with little to no additional support. Please feel free to reach out with questions and concerns.”

The email does not state specifically if or what would be upgraded or list any planned changes to the exhibit’s editorial content. It was sent to staff prior to the Trump administration’s recent letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting a “comprehensive internal review” of eight of its museums. While the Holocaust Memorial Museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution, it receives millions in federal funding as well as private donations.

Sources tell ABC News that news that the temporary closure of the “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit has increased concerns among some staffers who had been worried about the museums’ direction under the new administration, after Trump in April fired and replaced five Democrats appointed to the board of the museum.

The concern also comes as other Holocaust museums are facing criticism over editorial changes, including New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, which reportedly removed images of Trump from an exhibit on hate speech last September. The museum’s vice chair told Jewish Currents that the exhibit opened just “prior to the election” and that she felt the museum “should not have any political candidates in any of our exhibits.”

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum confirmed the planned closure of the exhibit and told ABC News that “there are no changes to the editorial content.”

“The Americans and the Holocaust exhibition was originally scheduled to be open for five years and has now been on display for more than seven. As a result, the gallery and exhibition needed work such as HVAC systems repairs, upgrading audio visual equipment and interactive tables, renewing copyrights that expired, and other maintenance,” the spokesperson said. “Therefore in 2024 we made the decision to close it temporarily during our lower visitation season to do this work which will be completed over the next few months so that the exhibition can remain open into 2032.”

A White House official told ABC News, “There are no plans to review the Holocaust Museum” and said that the closure of the exhibit is unrelated to the administration’s review of the Smithsonian museums.

In its letter to the Smithsonian Institution earlier this month, the White House lists eight museums that will be part of its initial Smithsonian review, and does not include the Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Additional museums will be reviewed in Phase II,” the letter says.

The “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit, introduced in 2018 to mark the museum’s 25th anniversary, presents a critical look at how the United States responded to the Holocaust and how factors like “the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust in the United States,” according to the museum’s public website.

One section of the exhibit examines “Obstacles to Immigration” and details how the 1924 National Origins Act was “designed to exclude ‘undesirable’ European immigrants, especially Italians, Slavs, and Jews.”

“Jews who hoped to flee Germany and Nazi-occupied territories faced additional obstacles,” the exhibit currently reads. “The Nazi regime implemented policies intended to pressure Jews to leave, but forced them to surrender most of their assets before doing so. At the same time, those who wished to immigrate to the United States had to prove that they would not become an economic burden after they arrived, which usually required finding a U.S. sponsor.”

The exhibit states that world-renowned physicist Albert Einstein, “himself a refugee from Germany,” said in 1941 that the United States had created a “wall of bureaucratic measures” that prevented immigration.

One part of the exhibit asks, “Could the Allies have stopped the killing?” and states, “Beyond the military goal of defeating Nazism, the United States could have publicized information about Nazi atrocities, pressured the Allies and neutral nations to help endangered Jews, and supported resistance against the Nazis. These acts together might have reduced the death toll but would not have prevented the Holocaust.”

The exhibit also includes a copy of the Treasury Department’s report to then-President Roosevelt, which described the mass murder of Europe’s Jews as “one of the greatest crimes in history,” and states that “State Department staff had tried to ‘cover up their guilt’ through lies and misrepresentations.”

Since taking office, President Trump has sought to leave his mark on the museum, which sources say has heightened some staff concerns that an overhaul could be underway. His firing of Holocaust Museum board members appointed by President Joe Biden included the removal of Doug Emhoff, the former second gentleman of the United States, and led to Trump naming eight new board members.

Weeks after the new board members were put in place, staffers received the email informing them that the “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit would be closing in September.

In recent months, some Trump-appointed members of the museum’s board, known as the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, have publicly called for an overhaul of the museum. Board member Martin Oliner, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, penned a June op-ed titled “Make the Holocaust Memorial Council great again,” in which he said that “in its current form” the museum was not fulfilling its “important role.”

“Thankfully, U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made combating antisemitism a priority of his second term, appears to understand these challenges and has begun cleaning house at the museum,” the op-ed stated.

Oliner, wrote that “the museum was designed when it was thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past, and it has moved on to combating other types of hate,” arguing that “a planned $150 million renovation of the main exhibit hall could make the museum even more woke and disconnected, a liberal monument to the dangers of immigration enforcement and conservative politics.”

The museum needs to show that “antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred” and “teach its visitors about the story of Jewish survival,” Oliner wrote.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The dream of becoming America’s next billionaire is up for grabs this Saturday night as the Powerball jackpot climbed to $1 billion, sending ticket sales soaring across the nation ahead of the Labor Day weekend drawing.

Game officials increased the jackpot estimate Friday morning from $950 million after reviewing national ticket sales, Powerball said. The winner could opt for a cash payment of $453.1 million before taxes.

“We’re bringing extra excitement to Labor Day Weekend with a Powerball jackpot that’s climbed to a billion dollars!” Powerball Product Group Chair and Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn said in a press release.

The game hasn’t seen a jackpot winner since May 31, when a California player claimed a $204.5 million prize. During this 39-drawing streak, the game has created 62 million-dollar winners and 608 tickets worth $50,000 or more.

Wednesday’s drawing saw six tickets match all five white balls — 9, 12, 22, 41 and 61 — with red Powerball 25, each winning $1 million or more.

Winners of Saturday’s jackpot can choose between annual payments or the lump sum. The annuity option provides one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year.Powerball tickets cost $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24.9.

The game has generated more than $36 billion for good causes supported by U.S. lotteries since its first drawing in 1992, Powerball noted. More than half of ticket sale proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold, according to Powerball.

The current jackpot ranks sixth among Powerball’s largest prizes. The record stands at $2.04 billion, won by a California player in November 2022, followed by the $1.765 billion prize claimed in California in October 2023.

Other notable jackpots include the $1.586 billion split among winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in January 2016, the $1.326 billion won in Oregon in April 2024, and the $1.08 billion claimed in California in July 2023.

Saturday’s drawing will be broadcast live at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee and streamed on Powerball’s website.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MIAMI) — University of Miami football player Adarius Hayes has been arrested and charged with vehicular homicide following a monthslong investigation into a car crash that killed three people in Florida, police said Friday.

Hayes, 20, turned himself into the Largo Police Department and was transported to the Pinellas County Jail on Friday, police said.

Hayes was “traveling at a high rate of speed and maneuvering aggressively through traffic” shortly before colliding with another vehicle on May 10, Largo police said.

Three people, including two children, were killed in the crash, police said.

The two-vehicle crash occurred at an intersection in Largo, police said. Hayes was driving a Dodge Durango, which collided with a Kia Soul that was “lawfully executing a left-hand turn,” police said.

“It was discovered during the investigation that approximately five seconds prior to the fatal crash, Hayes made a rapid and dangerous maneuver, changing lanes from the curb lane to the median lane, crossing three lanes of traffic while overtaking other vehicles,” the Largo Police Department said in a press release. “Moments later, Hayes abruptly re-entered the curb lane, again crossing all three lanes without signaling.”

 A search warrant on Hayes’ vehicle determined that he was traveling 78.9 mph in a 40 mph zone at the time of the crash, police said.

Two children who were traveling in the backseat of the Kia Soul were ejected from the car and were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The driver of the Kia Soul was transported with life-threatening injuries to an area hospital, where she died the following day, police said.

An adult front passenger in the Kia Soul was taken to a hospital with serious injuries and survived, police said.

Officers spoke with multiple eyewitnesses and reviewed video surveillance as part of their investigation into the crash, police said.

“The investigation concluded that Adarius Hayes’ egregious speed, aggressive and reckless lane changes, and complete disregard for surrounding traffic conditions demonstrated a willful and deliberate disregard for the safety of others, constituting reckless driving,” police said. “These actions directly led to the tragic deaths of the three victims.”

Hayes, who is a sophomore at Miami, was one of the top linebacker recruits in the country in 2024. A star at Largo High School, he was ranked as the 78th-best overall player in the country and sixth-best linebacker in the country by ESPN. He chose the Canes over such powerhouse programs as Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

He played sparingly as a freshman, mostly on special teams, but was expected to play a bigger role in 2025. Miami, ranked No. 10 in the country, hosts No. 6 Notre Dame in both schools’ first game of the season on Sunday.

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

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MINNEAPOLIS) — Over 100 people gathered across the street from the children’s ward at Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center to pray for the kids recovering there after they were shot at the Annunciation Catholic School this week.

Teachers, students and nurses, as well as police officers who had heard about the Thursday night candlelight vigil over their dispatch radios, all joined together for a moment of silence, united in a shared sense of grief and hope after Wednesday’s mass shooting.

“This is every nurse/mother’s worst nightmare, and worst fear come true,” a flyer for the vigil said. “We’d like anyone who is interested to come join us to light up [Minneapolis] with candlelight, love, and support, for the kids, their families and our staff.”

One of those victims is 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, who is in critical condition after undergoing surgery. It’s a tragedy that struck her entire family at once — her younger brother was inside Annunciation Catholic School at the time of the shooting and her mom is a pediatric nurse at the hospital where Sophia was admitted.

“Sofia’s mother was called into work, and only to find out when she arrived that her daughter was one of the victims, unfortunately,” Father Timothy Sas of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church told ABC News.

“No priest is ever prepared enough to offer consolation for a moment like this,” he said.

He described Sophia as “luminous” and “bright,” an active student at school and in church.

“She’s pulled through, and we need about two, three days before they can understand what her future prognosis is,” he said.

The gunfire erupted during Wednesday morning Mass, when a shooter opened fire through the windows of the school’s church, killing an 8-year-old boy, Fletcher Merkel, and a 10-year-old girl, Harper Moyski.

Eighteen people — including 15 kids — were injured. All injured victims are expected to survive, police said.

The 23-year-old shooter, who previously attended the school, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. A motive remains unknown.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BIG HORN COUNTY, Wyo.) — After being missing for nearly a month, a man who had left for a three-day hike in Wyoming was found dead in Bighorn National Forest, authorities said.

“While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much needed peace and closure to the family,” the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.

Grant Gardner, a Minnesota man who had planned on a three-day hike “through the Misty Moon Lake area, eventually summiting Cloud Peak,” which is the highest peak within Bighorn National Forest, was last heard from on July 29, when he contacted his wife, saying he had made it to the summit, the sheriff’s office said.

Phone records revealed that he had reached the summit at Cloud Peak — which is around 13,000 feet — at approximately 7 p.m., which was concerning to officials due to the “lack of visible trails through cliffs, timer line, boulder fields and other hazards that had to be navigated after dark before reaching clear trails and safe terrain,” officials said.

Since then, officials said “there has not been any contact with Gardner.”

On Tuesday, a professional climbing team from North Carolina “summited Cloud Peak and descended to the northern route of the peak,” the sheriff’s office said. When the team was establishing a high-altitude camp for the evening, they “noticed a slight reflection a few hundred feet above them underneath a ledge,” and were “confident it was a backpack,” the sheriff’s office said.

But due to nightfall approaching, further investigation would be “too dangerous,” so the team notified the sheriff’s office via satellite, officials said.

Then on Wednesday, teams from the sheriff’s office were launched and “Grant Gardner’s remains were located near the backpack” and he was wearing “clothing that very closely matched the terrain he was climbing in,” officials said.

The body was recovered in one of the two primary search areas, “very closely matching one of the highest probability scenarios,” officials said.

“It is noteworthy that this area had been covered by air and other means, underscoring how difficult this mission has been,” the sheriff’s office said.

Bighorn National Forest is over 1 million acres, with 191,000 acres dedicated to the Cloud Peak Wilderness area, which is where Gardner is believed to have been traveling, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

While the case has been transferred to the Big Horn County Coroner’s Office to determine the time, manner and cause of death, officials said they believe Gardner “succumbed to a tragic accident as we all have surmised.”

Prior to the discovery of Gardner’s body, officials had suspended search efforts for the hiker, saying that his “most optimistic survival odds have run out.”

“I have made the heartbreaking and difficult decision to suspend active search and rescue operations for Mr. Gardner. Our teams have exhausted all resources and personnel over the last 20 days. With weather conditions and other factors updated in our search models, we have to face the reality that the most optimistic survival odds have run out,” Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn said in a statement last week.

Now, after this “dangerous” recovery, Gardner’s body will be “brought home to his family,” officials said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, may have influenced last month’s deadly attack on NFL headquarters in New York City, federal prosecutors argued in a new court filing.

By carrying out the assassination-style killing of CEO Brian Thompson last year on a Midtown Manhattan street, Mangione “hoped to normalize the use of violence,” instead of reasoned dialogue, to achieve political objectives, prosecutors said. The prosecutors used last month’s mass shooting attack on the NFL headquarters in Midtown as an example.

On July 28, Shane Tamura brought an assault-style rifle to 345 Park Avenue, not far from where Mangione allegedly gunned down Thompson. Tamura shot and killed four people and, like Mangione, left behind writings for investigators to find. Tamura, in a letter found on his body, blamed the NFL and football for causing CTE. Tamura played football in high school, but not beyond that level. 

CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head, often seen in military veterans and athletes, including football players, hockey players and boxers. It can only be diagnosed after a person’s death.

Mangione allegedly wrote “deny,” “depose” and “delay” on the bullets used to kill Thompson, authorities said. In a notebook found after his arrest, Mangione allegedly wrote in a journal, “The target is insurance” because “it checks every box.”

“The murder was thus, by the defendant’s own admission, calculated to resonate beyond this specific victim and to generate scorn, outrage, or fear toward the health insurance sector more broadly,” prosecutors said. “Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives. Since the murder, certain quarters of the public — who openly identify as acolytes of the defendant — have increasingly begun to view violence as an acceptable, or even necessary, substitute for reasoned political disagreement.”

The government believes Mangione deserves the death penalty in part because he poses a continuing danger by seeking to influence others.

Federal prosecutors elaborated on their reasoning for pursuing capital punishment as they urged a federal judge to deny a defense motion that asked for additional evidence to support the government’s theories.

Prosecutors said Mangione is not entitled to additional information at this stage of the case and argued “the defendant is already in possession of the evidentiary support for the Government’s aggravating factors and there is no risk of surprise.”

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing. Mangione is accused of shooting the CEO several times using a 9 mm handgun equipped with a silencer. He was captured in Altoona, Pennsylvania, several days later.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KENAI, Alaska) — A woman has suffered “serious injuries” in Alaska when a bear attacked her near her driveway while she was out on her early morning jog, officials said.

The incident occurred early Tuesday morning when the Kenai Police Department in Alaska received a call at 6:58 a.m. informing them that there had been a bear attack near the intersection of Chinook Drive in Kenai, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in their statement on Tuesday.

“[An] investigation revealed a 36-year-old female departed her residence at 5:45 a.m. to go jogging and was near her driveway when the initial attack occurred,” police said.

A neighbor eventually came outside and located the unnamed victim before alerting authorities to the incident.

The jogger was taken by helicopter to an Anchorage area hospital where she was treated for “serious injuries,” according to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, though no details were given about what injuries she sustained or what condition she was in following her initial medical evaluation and treatment.

“Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Kenai Police Department, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel searched the area on foot and with a drone looking for the bear,” officials said. “The bear has not been located. Patrols of the area will continue, and the public is advised to remain vigilant while outdoors.”

The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge nearby contains almost 2 million acres of land along with an estimated 2,183 different animal species living there, according to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

The investigation into the attack is currently ongoing.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MINNEAPOLIS) — A motive in the Annunciation Catholic School mass shooting remains under investigation, and police said they’ve not identified a specific trigger for why the children at this church were targeted.

Police did confirm that Robin Westman, the 23-year-old suspect, had attended the school, and Westman’s mother previously worked in the parish.

Investigators determined that Westman “harbored a whole lot of hate towards a wide variety of people and groups of people,” and also “had a deranged obsession with previous mass shooters,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told ABC News Live on Thursday.

“This person, you know, committed this act with the intention of causing as much terror, as much trauma, as much carnage as possible for their own personal notoriety,” O’Hara said.

“The shooter expressed hate towards almost every group,” Joe Thompson, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said at a news conference on Thursday. “The shooter expressed hate towards Black people, the shooter expressed hate towards Mexican people, the shooter expressed hate towards Christian people, the shooter expressed hate towards Jewish people. In short, the shooter appeared to hate all of us.”

The shooter also “expressed hate” toward President Donald Trump, he said.

“There appears to be only one group that the shooter didn’t hate, one group of people who the shooter admired — the group were the school shooters and mass murderers that are notorious in this country,” Thompson said.

“More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children, defenseless children. … The shooter wanted to watch children suffer,” Thompson said.

An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old were killed and 18 people — including 15 kids — were injured when the shooter opened fire through the windows of the Minneapolis school’s church on Wednesday morning. All injured victims are expected to survive, police said.

Westman never entered the church building, but could have entered after shooting out a door-sized window, O’Hara told ABC News.

“These children were slaughtered by a shooter who could not see them,” O’Hara said at a news conference, noting the shooter “was standing outside of the building firing through very narrow church windows.”

Westman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Driver’s license information reviewed by ABC News described Westman as a female, born on June 17, 2002. A name change application for a minor born on the same date, June 17, 2002, was approved by a district court in Minnesota in 2020, changing the name of a Robert Westman to Robin Westman, explaining the minor child “identifies as a female and wants her name to reflect that identification.”

Investigators are reviewing hundreds of pages of documents, videos and other evidence as they look for a motive, O’Hara said.

Police have also conducted dozens of interviews with witnesses as well as people who knew the suspect, though investigators “have not been successful” in talking to Westman’s mother, the chief said.

A neighbor of Robin Westman’s father and stepmother, who describes himself as a close friend of the family, said some family members began getting death threats less than three hours after the shooting took place.

“This is going to ruin their lives,” the neighbor, who declined to be publicly named, told ABC News.

The neighbor said Robin Westman was into activities that interested many kids — particularly skateboarding and rock climbing — and was “a good kid who gave up no signs of violence.”

“If she was radicalized, it must have been quickly. We have no idea how this could happen,” the neighbor said.

The father and stepmother “were the best neighbors I can possibly imagine,” the neighbor said, describing the family as “apolitical,” “not a gun family” and “live and let live people.”

The neighbor said he wishes for “grace and sympathy” for the parents.

“They are not at fault,” the neighbor said. “She was a young person living on her own. The parents don’t have access to what they are doing unless they are checking everything they do. What parent is doing that?”

Officials are investigating a series of videos posted to YouTube believed to be associated with the suspect, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the matter. Two videos, posted Wednesday morning and since removed by YouTube, show someone flipping through dozens of pages of notes dated over the course of several months, which include what appears to be doodles of weapons, middle fingers and expletives, as well as repeated references to killing.

Writings in notebooks and on the guns indicate a series of grievances, anger and ideations of harm to self and to others. The writings also appear to show overt references to other high-profile school shootings and shooters.

Officers recovered three guns — one rifle, one shotgun and one handgun — at the scene, all of which are believed to have been fired in the attack, police said. All of the guns were purchased legally by Westman, police said, and authorities believe they were purchased recently in Minnesota.

Three shotgun shells and 116 rifle rounds were recovered, police said. One live round was recovered from a handgun that appeared to malfunction, leaving the bullet stuck in the chamber, the chief said.

As Minneapolis mourns, Mayor Jacob Frey is stressing the need for gun control, telling ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” “How many times have you heard politicians talk of an ‘unspeakable tragedy’? And yet this kind of thing happens again and again.”

“Prayers, thoughts, they are certainly welcomed, but they are not enough,” Frey said. “There needs to be change so that we don’t have another mayor, in another month-and-a half, talking about a tragedy that happened in their city.”

Danielle Gunter, whose son, an eighth grader, was shot and wounded, said in a statement to Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP, “We feel the pain, the anger, the confusion, and the searing reality that our lives will never be the same. Yet we still have our child.”

“We grieve and we pray: for the others who were shot, for their families, and for those who lost loved ones,” she said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he’s sending state law enforcement to help with security at schools and places of worship in the city.

ABC News’ Alex Perez, Alyssa Acquavella, Mariama Jalloh, Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Sasha Pezenik and Mark Guarino contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHELAN COUNTY, Wash.) — After a two-day search of the area where Travis Decker allegedly murdered his three young daughters, the FBI said they will be analyzing “several items” that were recovered near the crime scene.

The FBI concluded its two-day grid search operation on Tuesday, focusing within the vicinity of Rock Island Campground in Leavenworth, Washington, where the girls bodies’ were found back on June 2, W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office, said in a press release on Thursday.

The purpose of search was to “locate Travis Decker, discover signs of his whereabouts or find any other evidence of the murder of his three daughters,” Herrington said.

Over 100 personnel were deployed and 1,000,000 square meters were searched, but Decker has not been located, Herrington said.

“A search of this magnitude and detail has not previously taken place in this area,” Herrington said.

During the investigation, Herrington said search personnel recovered “several items that are being examined to determine if they are related to this investigation,” saying that final results “will take some time.”

“Finding this potential evidence emphasizes the value in having various teams search an area multiple times, especially in such challenging conditions,” Herrington said.

Herrington added that officials are “committed to bringing every available FBI resource that will advance this case for as long as it takes.”

During a press conference on Monday, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said officials “will not relent” and “not give up” on the search efforts, even if locating Decker takes years.

“The girls would not want us to give up,” Morrison said on Monday. “If it’s not me wearing this uniform, it’s another Chelan County sheriff. We will find him, in one fashion or another.”

Paityn Decker, 9; Evelyn Decker, 8; and Olivia Decker, 5, were found dead near the Rock Island Campground after they left home for a planned visit with their father on May 30, according to police.

The U.S. Marshals Service is still offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading directly to Decker’s arrest.

Anyone who sees Decker or knows of his whereabouts should call 911 immediately and not contact or approach him, officials said. He is currently wanted for three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of kidnapping, officials said.

Decker is considered armed and dangerous, officials said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — A temporary ground stop halted incoming flights at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday due to air traffic control communication issues, marking the latest in a series of disruptions at the busy New Jersey airport.

Air traffic controllers briefly lost their radio frequencies during the ground stop, which lasted from approximately 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, according to Federal Aviation Administration bulletins. Delays averaged more than two hours.

The FAA responded by further reducing Newark’s flight capacity. The agency cut incoming flights to 28 per hour until at least Friday, a significant decrease from the airport’s normal capacity of 40-42 flights per hour, which had already been lowered to 34 in recent weeks.

“The FAA is pausing some flights into Newark Liberty International Airport due to equipment issues. We are investigating the cause,” the agency said in a statement. Controllers were instructed to space arriving aircraft about 20 miles apart on approach to Newark, a controller on duty told ABC News.

The disruption marked the second outage for controllers at the Philadelphia air traffic control center, which manages Newark’s airspace, within 24 hours.

During Wednesday evening’s outage, pilots reported that controller call signs were cutting out entirely, according to air traffic recordings obtained by LiveATC.net. One controller was heard telling pilots they were “having some sort of FTI issues” and had placed flights in a hold.

“Out here it’ll be no call sign or just be heading 040,” one pilot reported during Wednesday’s incident, explaining why aircraft weren’t acknowledging transmissions.

The latest disruption adds to a growing list of technical issues at Newark.

On May 11, a telecommunications problem at the Philadelphia TRACON facility prompted a 45-minute ground stop. Just days earlier, on May 9, radar screens went dark for 90 seconds, forcing controllers to warn incoming aircraft about potential communication issues, according to FAA reports.

In late April, controllers experienced a 60-90 second outage that darkened their computer screens and cut off aircraft communications, sources familiar with the incident told ABC News.

Following the April incident, several controllers took medical leave, citing the event as traumatic, ABC News had reported.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.