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(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) — A suspect has been arrested in the “brutal and evil” murders of two Indiana women who were both stabbed to death days apart and found near each other, police announced on Friday.

The victims were found dead on Indianapolis’ east side, police said. The body of the first victim — Shannon Lassere, 58 — was found in a parking lot on Jan. 27, while the second — Marianne Weis, 52 — was found behind a building about 150 yards away on Feb. 1, police said.

Both had been killed by “multiple sharp force injuries,” the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said.

“This was brutal and evil, what happened to them,” Indianapolis Interim Police Chief Christopher Bailey said at a press briefing on Friday.

“An arrest in this case will not bring these two women back, but I pray this step brings the family and the loved ones the comfort they need as they continue to grieve. I also pray that this arrest brings our neighbors on the east side, a sense of peace and safety,” he added.

David Hiner, 30, was charged on Friday with two counts of murder in their deaths, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said. He is in custody and is likely to make his first court appearance next week. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears thanked the community for their help on what he called the “unnecessary and thoughtless killing” of two vulnerable members of the community.

“Where you have two separate incidents involving two different people over the course of a couple of days, it is paramount that we’re in a position to hammer down a timeline — which we were able to do because of the community’s involvement and participation,” Mears said during a press briefing on Friday. “We would not be here without those individuals coming forward with that information.”

Hiner knew the second victim, Weis, according to Indianapolis Deputy Chief Kendale Adams. Police do not have any information that the suspect knew Lassere, Adams said.

Surveillance and forensic evidence helped lead detectives to arrest the suspect, Adams said.

Surveillance footage showed Weis walking with a man after leaving a bar the night she was killed, according to the probable cause affidavit. Several people at the bar also told people they saw Weis leave with a man, according to the affidavit.

Detectives began looking for a person who fit the description of the man captured on the surveillance footage, Adams said. While patrolling the area near where the women were found on Tuesday, detectives saw Hiner leave his apartment building wearing a black coat similar to the one seen in the video, according to the affidavit. He also had the same style of hair, build and complexion as the man seen in the footage, according to the affidavit.

Hiner was taken into custody on Tuesday and detectives obtained a search warrant for his apartment.

During the search on Wednesday, detectives found a pair of Nike Air Max-style shoes in his bedroom that appeared “to have dried blood on them,” according to the affidavit.

Jeans that appeared to match those seen in the surveillance video were also found “soaking in bleach in a bucket in the bathtub,” the affidavit stated. Another pair of jeans found in a hamper also appeared to have “specks of possible blood on them,” the affidavit stated.

Detectives needed more time while awaiting DNA results on the evidence before making an arrest, police said. They had learned that Hiner was on probation out of La Porte County in Indiana, and a probation violation and warrant for his arrest was issued out of the county on Wednesday, police said.

A preliminary DNA analysis of blood from the suspect’s shoes matched the blood of both victims, police said.

“This confirmation from the lab was key to positively connecting the suspect, David Hiner, to the victims,” Adams said.

No murder weapon has been recovered, Adams said.

While being interviewed by police, Hiner allegedly said he was aware that two women had been killed recently near his home but “had nothing to do with it and only saw what was on the news,” the affidavit stated. He also denied being at the bar where Weis was prior to her murder, according to the affidavit.

After being shown photos from the video surveillance cameras he “admitted that it was him in the photos,” though denied that Weis was with him despite witness accounts, the affidavit stated.

He also allegedly claimed the shoes belonged to his mother’s boyfriend, though she told police she had recently given them to her son, according to the affidavit.

A motive remains unknown, police said.

Hiner had been released from prison in September 2023, police said.

Online court and state correction court records show he had served at least 10 years for aggravated battery after pleading guilty in 2012 to shooting a pizza delivery driver two years earlier.

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(NAPLES, Fla.) — At least two people are dead after a small plane crashed onto a Florida highway Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The aircraft crashed onto Interstate 75 near Naples around 3:15 p.m. ET, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It collided with a vehicle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office said there have been two confirmed fatalities in the crash.

Three people survived the crash, though their condition is unknown, the Naples Airport confirmed to ABC News.

Five people were on board the plane — a Bombardier Challenger 600 jet — according to the FAA.

A large fire and a billowing black cloud of smoke could be seen at the location.

PHOTO: The scene after a small plane collided with a vehicle on I-75 near Naples, Florida, Feb. 9, 2024.
The scene after a small plane collided with a vehicle on I-75 near Naples, Florida, Feb. 9, 2024.
Florida Highway Patrol
Southbound interstate lanes are currently closed and drivers are asked to avoid the area if possible.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

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

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(NAPLES, Fla.) — A small plane collided with a vehicle after crashing onto a Florida highway Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The aircraft crashed onto Interstate 75 near Naples around 3:15 p.m. ET, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It collided with a vehicle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Five people were on board the plane — a Bombardier Challenger 600 jet — according to the FAA.

A large fire and a billowing black cloud of smoke could be seen at the location.

Southbound interstate lanes are currently closed and drivers are asked to avoid the area if possible.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

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

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(NEW YORK) — A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck near Pahala on Hawaii’s Big Island on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A reporter with Honolulu ABC affiliate KITV said he felt strong, intense shaking near Hilo on the Big Island.

The governor’s office said no tsunami is expected.

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

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(WASHINGTON) — The five Marines who died when their helicopter crashed during a routine training flight this week have been identified, the Marine Corps said.

They were: Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, of Olathe, Kansas, a CH-53E helicopter crew chief; Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, of Chandler, Arizona, a CH-53E helicopter crew chief; Capt. Benjamin Moulton, 27, of Emmett, Idaho, a CH-53E helicopter pilot; Capt. Jack Casey, 26, of Dover, New Hampshire, a CH-53E helicopter pilot; and Capt. Miguel Nava, 28, of Traverse City, Michigan, a CH-53E helicopter pilot.

Alec Langen, 23, got married a few weeks ago, ABC San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV reported.

Langen’s dad, Steve Langen, was also a Marine and said he flew the same aircraft.

“I would give anything to be able to trade places and just have him come home,” Steve Langen told KGTV.

“He died with people he wanted to be with, doing what he loved and wanted to do,” he added.

The Marines had been reported missing when their CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter was “reported overdue” to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Tuesday night. The helicopter departed from Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas and was en route to Miramar, in the San Diego, California, area.

A search effort was launched and the helicopter was discovered Wednesday morning.

On Thursday morning, the Marine Corps announced that the five missing Marines had been confirmed dead. The families had been notified Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the Marines said.

An investigation is ongoing. The Marines called it a “tragic mishap.”

“We have been confronted with a tragedy that is every service family’s worst fear,” Lt. Col. Nicholas J. Harvey said in a statement Friday. “Our top priority now is supporting the families of our fallen heroes, and we ask for your respect and understanding as they grieve. The Flying Tigers family stands strong and includes the friends and community who have supported our squadron during this challenging time. We will get through this together.”

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(FRESNO, Calif.) — Authorities in California’s Central Valley are asking residents to bee alert for stolen hives, which are a prime target this time of year, after nearly 100 were recently stolen from an open field.

Ninety-six beehives valued at nearly $34,000 were stolen late last month, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said this week. The hives had been positioned in almond orchards in the Central Valley for the region’s famed almond blossom season.

“This type of crime consistently happens in Fresno County around January and February as beehives are set out for the almond bloom,” Fresno County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tony Botti told ABC News. “Unfortunately, it is usually someone else in the industry behind it since they are familiar with handling bees. They will strike at night when the bees [are] dormant or in the rain when they are not active.”

The stolen hives, which are owned by South Dakota beekeepers, disappeared between 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 and 4 p.m. on Jan. 29 from a field located west of Mendota, the sheriff’s office said. They are multicolored and branded with the letters “MEB,” the sheriff’s office said.

There is no person or vehicle of interest at this time, Botti said.

A cash reward is being offered for information on the whereabouts of the hives, the sheriff’s office said.

Out-of-state beekeepers often contract with California growers to help pollinate their crops, including almond trees in the Central Valley, the sheriff’s office said.

Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen said a hive theft can be “devastating” to a beekeeper.

“You’re looking at hundreds and hundreds of dollars invested in that single hive, and you just don’t make that up,” Jacobsen told Fresno ABC station KFSN. “You don’t just go buy another box, and all of a sudden have a colony.”

Jacobsen said beekeeping is a “very extensive process,” from acquiring a queen to keeping a hive healthy over several years. Some beekeepers are using GPS and other tracking devices due to the theft threat, he said.

“Because of the high value of these hives and relative ruralness and remote areas that they’re located, unfortunately the thefts are something that we deal with quite often,” Jacobsen told the station.

Botti told KFSN that people should be suspicious of hives being loaded onto a truck now.

“This is the time of year where you should be seeing forklifts offloading hives into orchards, not necessarily putting them back onto a truck,” he told the station. “So, keep your eyes peeled. If you see somebody loading bees onto a truck, call in law enforcement and let us go and check it out to make sure that it’s legit.”

Some 80% of all U.S. almonds are produced in the Central Valley, according to the Central Valley Almond Association. The bloom occurs in February and March.

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(NEW YORK) — Police continue to search for a violent mugger who met his match in a 91-year-old man he tried to rob on a New York City street.

The victim, Hyman Silverglad, was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital Medical Center with multiple injuries last week after he fought off the mugger trying to steal his wallet.

The assault took place on Feb. 1 on East 86th Street between First and Second Avenues around 10:30 a.m., local time, according to police. The suspect was captured by surveillance cameras and was last seen fleeing the scene on foot.

The NYPD’s 19th precinct released a photo of the suspect on X Wednesday, asking the public for tips locating him.

A police spokesperson told ABC News Thursday that the suspect remains at large.

In an interview with WABC in New York on Wednesday, Silverglad, and his son, James, recounted the brutal assault.

Hyman Silverglad says he was walking home from the grocery store when the assailant violently pushed him to the ground and punched him while trying to take his wallet.

However, the retired attorney from Coney Island held firm onto his wallet until the suspect fled the scene.

“He said ‘I’m from Coney Island,’ he wasn’t going to get my wallet,’ that’s what he said,” James Silverglad said of his father remaining steadfast against the attacker.

Hyman Silverglad told WABC the several fractures he sustained in the attack have left him “in agony.”

“He threw me to the ground and I have suffered at least six fractures, very bad fractures and I’m in agony,” he said. “I cannot walk, I’m in never-ending constant pain.”

James Silverglad told the outlet that before his father retired from his legal practice, he was known for lending his law expertise to those who could not afford an attorney.

“He called himself the lawyer of last resort, that if you couldn’t get anybody else, you could get him, and that’s a direct quote,” his son said.

Despite the injuries sustained in the would-be mugging, the 91-year-old maintained, “I had to fight for my life. Who wouldn’t put up a good fight?”

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(NEW YORK) — Six family members remain unaccounted for a day after a massive house fire engulfed a Pennsylvania residence where officers responding to an emergency call were met with gunfire, officials said.

Authorities presume that three adults and three children who lived in the house were inside during the shooting and subsequent fire and are dead, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer told reporters during a press briefing on Thursday.

The remains of a human torso and a rifle have so far been recovered from the house, which has been largely burned out, Stollsteimer said.

“There’s a lot more work to be done,” he said, adding that a timeline on the recovery effort is unclear as the scene is “very unsafe.”

While responding to the home Wednesday afternoon, officers were “immediately met by gunfire,” Stollsteimer told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday. Two officers were shot, he said.

The two male officers, who were with the East Lansdowne and Lansdowne police departments, each sustained a single gunshot wound, Stollsteimer said. They were pulled from the scene to safety by responding officers from the Upper Darby Police Department, he said.

The injured officers are in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Stollsteimer. One officer is expected to be released from the hospital Thursday afternoon, he said. The second suffered a “slightly more serious wound” and remains hospitalized, he said.

During the incident, the house became engulfed in flames while shots were still being fired from the home, Stollsteimer said. It is unclear how the fire started.

A 911 caller reported that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at the residence in East Lansdowne, according to Stollsteimer. It is unclear if an 11-year-old had been shot, he said.

Stollsteimer said he believes a family member who was not in the home may have called 911, but it is unclear if that was the 911 that “triggered the response.”

A neighbor, John White, told reporters at the scene he heard gunfire and sometime later, “13 or 15 more shots.” He said he “got low” during the incident, and SWAT members later evacuated him from his home.

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(ELLSWORTH, Kan.) — For the first time in decades, prison inmates are eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal financial aid program that helps low-income students receive a college education.

Simon Garcia, 34, who graduated college last November from a state prison in Ellsworth, Kansas, is just one of the people whose life was changed due to a Pell Grant.

“I’ve been in prison and incarcerated all my life, since I was 12 years old,” Garcia told ABC News. “Initially, was just gang related and it was aggravated assault.”

While in prison, 10 more years were added to his sentence for hiding a homemade knife and shoving a corrections officer off a second-floor balcony.

“I thought that I was the king of my world, and I had it all going on,” Garcia said. “But I was so broken and messed up inside.”

The Pell Grant has given Garcia a new opportunity. With seven more years to go in prison, he has now earned his associate’s degree in general studies with honors, after being a full-time student taking five classes a semester. He is graduating along with a dozen other convicted men.

“I feel like education helped me gain the power to break free from the shackles of ignorance,” Garcia said. “Nobody’s too far past redemption.”

Former President Bill Clinton had removed Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals through the Federal Crime Bill of 1994, as an answer to the crack cocaine epidemic of the early 1990s. Then-Delaware senator and current President Joe Biden co-authored the bill.

“I think the reason that people in prison lost eligibility for Pell Grants in 1994 was really just part of our larger tough-on-crime attitude at the time, as a country,” said Margaret DiZerega, the managing director of initiatives at the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, a research organization. “And so, it was seen as another way to be punitive and to take this away from people who are in prison, even though less than 1% of all people accessing Pell at that time were people who were in prison.”

But in 2016, the Obama administration reintroduced the Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals. Through the Second Chance Pell experiment, selected pilot correction facilities offered fully funded Pell Grant college programs.

According to a 2018 study from the RAND Corporation funded by the Department of Justice, incarcerated individuals who participated in prison education were 48% less likely to return to prison within three years. RAND also estimated that for every dollar invested in prison education, up to $5 is saved on re-incarceration costs.

“That means there are fewer crime victims, there are more people living freely in the community,” said DiZerega.

At the end of 2020, the FAFSA Simplification Act was passed, restoring Pell Grants for students incarcerated in federal or state prisons, regardless of their conviction type or sentence length.

Roy Maney is a Pell Grant applicant at Ellsworth Correctional Facility. Maney, 42, was convicted of second-degree murder for killing 30-year-old Tiffany Mogenson when he sped away from a police officer and crashed into Mogenson’s car in 2013.

“The balance between punishment and rehabilitation is always tough for a victim’s family,” Mogenson’s father, Randy Long, wrote to ABC News. “I truly doubt that any continued education will assist [Roy Maney] in his life after prison. To me this is an additional slap in the face for all who supported Tiffany. They now get to pay for this government boondoggle.”

The state of Kansas says that Maney could be released in three years.

“Would you want someone that don’t have a degree to be your neighbor or a person with a degree?” Maney said. “These inmates that people just say, ‘oh, forget about them.’ These same people are going to the street. They can be in the grocery store with you. So why write them off? Everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Everyone’s made a mistake in their life,” said Don Langford, the prison warden at Ellsworth. “And by giving those GEDs and Second Chance Pell Grants, it gives men and women that opportunity to learn something that they may have never learned.”

Terrin Keith has directly experienced the benefits of the prison college program. Once a hard drug user, Keith, 35, has been in and out of state penitentiaries his whole adult life.

“In the past, when I would get released, and I would go apply for jobs,” said Keith. “But just having the felony checkmark on the application, it just seemed like I’d get no response. And so, then I’d fall back into my old habits.”

But this time, he was released from prison last summer with an associate’s degree in applied science with a 4.0 grade point average. He secured a job building windows while in prison.

“Being able to get that education and then landing that job while incarcerated was a big game changer,” said Keith. “It made the transition a lot easier.”

While most companies refuse to hire convicted felons, Keith’s new employer, Bob Holloway, needs skilled and educated labor to build architectural German windows. He has agreed to interview men at the prison for his company, Advantage Architectural Woodwork.

“I was skeptical that he would show up the first day,” Holloway said. “Ten years ago, two years ago, I would have never seen myself employing convicts. And yeah, so far so good.”

For others still in prison, a college degree brings hope for possibilities. Garcia feels that his newly earned degree has provided him the tools to become a better man. Before he leaves prison, Garcia plans to earn a master’s degree that he can use on the outside.

“I’ve never felt this happy in my life and I’m in prison and I still have seven years to go,” said Garcia. “I don’t feel negative at all. I don’t feel like anything bad is going to happen, and if it does, I’m ready for it.”

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(BOSTON) — Two JetBlue planes clipped each other Thursday morning while on a deicing pad at Boston Logan International Airport.

The incident occurred when the two planes were on adjacent deicing pad lanes, JetBlue said in a statement. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the left winglet of JetBlue flight 777, an Airbus A321neo, struck the right horizontal stabilizer of JetBlue flight 551, which was an Airbus A321.

The impact damaged one aircraft’s winglet and the other plane’s tail section, according to JetBlue.

The FAA said the event happened on an area of the tarmac that is controlled by the airline. The agency will investigate the incident.

The incident occurred around 6:40 a.m. ET, according to the FAA and the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

JetBlue said no injuries were reported by passengers or crew on either aircraft.

“We were hit by another aircraft,” the pilot of JetBlue flight 551 said on air traffic control audio, obtained through LiveATC.net.

A pilot of a nearby plane, who witnessed the event, told air traffic control: “We saw two aircrafts hit the tail and the wing.”

Dave Sauter was a passenger on JetBlue flight 777, headed to Las Vegas.

“You felt the brake when they stopped; you didn’t feel the collision,” he told ABC News. “It was too minor with that amount of weight moving.”

He said that the passengers weren’t scared, but frustrated.

JetBlue said both aircraft will be taken out of service for repairs and the two flights will operate on other planes. JetBlue 777 was scheduled to go to Las Vegas and JetBlue 551 to Orlando.

“Safety is JetBlue’s priority, and we will work to determine how and why this incident occurred,” JetBlue said in a statement following the incident.

Boston Logan has seen other wing clip incidents over the past 12 months. Last March, two United planes clipped wings while one was pushing back from the gate. And in June, a United plane’s wing clipped the tail of a Delta plane while the United flight was taxiing to a holding pad.

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