(NEW YORK) — The estranged wife of Gilgo Beach, New York, murder suspect Rex Heuermann attended one of his court appearances for the first time on Wednesday.
Asa Ellerup filed for divorce six days after Heuermann’s July arrest for the murders of three sex workers. He has pleaded not guilty.
Heuermann’s routine court appearance on Long Island on Wednesday was to allow attorneys to work out scheduling matters.
Ellerup, who recently visited Heuermann in jail, is under contract with a production company, according to her attorney.
Ellerup’s attorney has signaled she plans to attend every court date going forward so she can see the evidence for herself.
Ellerup told ABC News in July after the arrest, “[My children] have been crying themselves to sleep and I’ve been crying myself to sleep, too.”
Heuermann was arrested in July for the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found on Long Island in 2010.
Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007, though he has not been charged in that case. Prosecutors said the investigation into Brainard-Barnes’ murder is ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — Veterinarians are sounding the alarm as they see a growing number of coughing dogs.
Wendy Brown’s three golden retrievers — Bridge, Dooley and Lulu — are among the dogs who started showing symptoms earlier this November.
“Dooley started doing kind of this huffing and also seemed to feel quite lethargic,” Brown recalled to “Good Morning America.” “Not too long after, Bridge began to exhibit the symptoms. But his were louder, more boisterous. I thought it was his stomach because he made like a retching sound.”
Initially, Brown thought her pets had a typical kennel cough but when their symptoms didn’t subside, she knew it was something more serious.
“The vet started him on a 10-day cycle of doxycycline. Today was day 10 and he is not a lot better,” Brown said.
Brown, an Idaho resident, said she’s still not sure what could have caused her dogs’ illness in the first place.
While research is underway, veterinarians say the mystery illness is highly contagious and can be fatal. Reported symptoms so far have also been typical of a kennel cough and they include coughing, sneezing, nasal and/or eye discharge and lethargy.
“Instead of that dry cough where the dog felt good, it was now this wet cough where the dog felt sick,” Amanda Cavanagh, the section head of the urgent care service at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, told “GMA.”
Experts like Cavanagh said any dogs showing signs of consistent coughing should be brought to a vet to be examined.
“We can ultrasound the lungs to see if there is a problem that is related to pneumonia or the contagious pneumonia that seems to be going around,” Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh also recommends keeping any coughing dogs away from other dogs and for two weeks after the cough goes away.
(NEW YORK) — Authorities say they are urgently searching the waters of the Gulf of Mexico after a man fell off a cruise ship.
Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a report at approximately 12:40 p.m. on Monday informing them that there was an unaccounted-for passenger from the Carnival Glory cruise ship, which was scheduled to stop at Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, Mexico, before returning to New Orleans on Sunday, according to the ship’s itinerary.
“The unaccounted-for man has been identified by family members as Tyler Barnett of Houma, Louisiana,” read a statement from the United States Coast Guard released on Tuesday. “Carnival reported he was last seen on security camera at approximately midnight Monday morning.”
The United States Coast Guard District Eight watchstanders immediately launched a Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircrew and an Air Station Clearwater HC-130 Super Hercules aircrew to conduct searches of “a roughly 200-mile area following the path of the ships voyage,” authorities confirmed.
Watchstanders have also been transmitting urgent marine information broadcasts to mariners to make them aware of the missing man in case he is seen in the water and can be rescued by another vessel.
It is unclear how Barnett went overboard but the United States Coast Guard said that “new security footage discovered by Carnival Glory shows the man falling off the cruise ship” and that officials are combing through the search area located approximately 30 miles southwest of the Southwest Pass, in Louisiana.
The search had to be called off overnight due to “severe weather conditions and safety concerns,” authorities said. However, as of Tuesday morning, an Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 Ocean Sentry had resumed search efforts.
As of Wednesday, search efforts had not turned up any clues to where Barnett might be but the Coast Guard said they will continue searching for the missing passenger as weather conditions permit.
(NEW YORK) — Less than a week before back-to-back mass shootings in Maine last month, alleged gunman Robert Card threatened employees at a New Hampshire bakery that he might “snap” on them, according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
What could have been another clue for law enforcement days before the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston would come too late: the report of the incident was made to police after the fact, on Oct. 26.
Hudson police told ABC News that once the bakery employees saw Card on the news, they flagged their own encounters with him.
According to the report, Card had been making deliveries to the bakery in Hudson, New Hampshire for “approximately six months,” one of the employees told police.
This police report also answers, at least in part, what had remained an open question: where Card had been working in the time leading up to the shootings.
As ABC News has previously reported, Card had worked at the recycling plant where police ultimately found his body, but he had “left voluntarily late last spring,” according to the company.
On Thursday, Oct. 19, Card told bakery employees that he “knew” they “were talking about him,” and stated, “Maybe you will be the ones I snap on,” according to the police report.
One of the employees told police “It seemed [Card] may have been hearing voices,” as they had not been saying anything about him.
One employee told police Card did “get in his face” but that “no direct threats were made.”
Six days later on the evening of Oct. 25, Card would open fire at a bar and a bowling alley, claiming 18 lives and injuring 13 more, according to police.
For two days after the shootings, Card was on the run from authorities. While Card evaded police, the bakery staff made their report — his access to the delivery vehicle was something they specifically flagged.
One of the employees warned Card “may have access” to a delivery truck from the company he was employed by, Hudson police told ABC News.
The incident report notes the bakery employee “also advised the business should not be receiving any shipments tonight as Lewiston is locked down.”
Card had previously displayed erratic behavior while on his delivery route, bakery employees told police.
When he first began making the bakery’s deliveries, Card had made a “strange comment,” stating, “I’m not gay or a pedophile, but just show me where the bread goes,” according to the Oct. 26 incident report.
The last time the bakery staff said they saw Card was around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, the night before the shootings, according to the incident report.
Hudson police told ABC News once they received information about Card from the bakery, it was forwarded to the FBI.
This latest revelation marks another in a growing string of missed warning signs ahead of the back-to-back bloodshed in Maine last month.
Card’s comments to the bakery employees echo others he had made — comments that had seriously concerned his family and his fellow soldiers alike — that he would, indeed, “snap.”
In May, Card’s ex-wife and their teenage son went to police with similar issues: Card’s son worried his father’s “mental health is in question” and was “likely hearing voices or starting to experience paranoia,” a “re-occurring theme” as Card claimed derogatory things were being said about him, “such as calling him a pedophile,” according to a separate incident report previously obtained by ABC News.
A mid-September letter from Card’s army reserve training supervisor to local law enforcement warned that Card had been “hearing voices calling him a pedophile, saying he has a small d**k, and other insults. This hearing voices started in the spring and has only gotten worse.”
A series of distraught text messages from one of Card’s fellow Army reservists warned their training supervisor that Card’s mental health was on the decline and that he could pose a “threat to the unit” and “other places,” that he was armed and dangerous, and that he “refused to get help,” according to documents previously obtained by ABC News.
“Change the passcode to the unit gate and be armed if sfc card does arrive. Please. I believe he’s messed up in the head,” those texts said.
“And yes he still has all of his weapons,” the texts continued. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
(NEW YORK) — The New York City Police Department has identified a person of interest in connection with an alleged bias attack at a Brooklyn playground last week, where a woman allegedly made anti-Islamic statements at a 40-year-old man who was with his toddler before throwing her phone and hot coffee at him, sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News.
The man, who is of Indian descent, claimed the suspect accused him of supporting Hamas after he went to retrieve his 18-month-old son who had wandered into the basketball courts while they were at the Edmonds Playground in Fort Greene on Nov. 7, police said.
The man and his son weren’t seriously hurt during the incident, which was filmed, according to police.
The NYPD released video of the incident which they said was a “hate crime assault” along with still images. The woman is seen wearing a black and white baseball cap, a black fanny pack, and sunglasses.
Detectives have probable cause to arrest the person of interest who was identified from numerous tips to CrimeStoppers, according to sources. The person of interest lives near the playground and detectives were actively looking for her as of Tuesday evening, the sources said.
(NEW YORK) — A Wisconsin woman accused of spiking her friend’s water bottle with a lethal dose of eye drops was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree intentional homicide.
The jury found Jessy Kurczewski, 39, guilty on all counts, including intentional homicide and theft, after deliberating over two days. Kurczewski broke down in tears as the verdict was read in Waukesha County court.
Kurczewski had been charged in connection with the death of 62-year-old Lynn Hernan, who was found dead in her home in Pewaukee in 2018.
Kurczewski was also accused of defrauding Hernan of nearly $300,000 in the two years leading up to her death, according to the criminal complaint.
Kurczewski had pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of felony theft.
Hernan was found unconscious on Oct. 3, 2018, seated in her living room recliner next to a table filled with prescription pills with what appeared to be crushed medication on her chest, according to a police report. The case was initially ruled a drug overdose.
Kurczewski, Hernan’s friend and caregiver, called the police to report that she went to Hernan’s home and found her unresponsive and not breathing, according to the complaint. Kurczewski allegedly told police that she believed Hernan was suicidal because of her debilitating health conditions, the complaint stated.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation roughly three months after Hernan’s death when the toxicological report showed Hernan had a fatal dose of tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in over-the-counter eye drops, in her system, according to the criminal complaint.
Kurczewski was arrested and charged in June 2021.
During the weeks-long trial, prosecutors said that Kurczewski was one of the beneficiaries of Hernan’s will and argued that “Lynn Hernan became worth more dead than alive” to the defendant.
The defense claimed that Hernan wasn’t poisoned by Kurczewski.
“She just liked vodka. She also liked Visine. I have no idea why,” defense attorney Pablo Galaviz said of Hernan during opening statements last month.
Prosecutors said they were satisfied with the guilty verdict and said the medical examiner’s work provided “vital evidence” in the case.
“The defendant betrayed Lynn out of greed,” Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie told reporters following the verdict. “This case highlighted the financial vulnerability of the victim and what a person would do to get what they want.”
The defense did not speak to the press following the verdict.
Kurczewski will be sentenced at a later date. She faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
“It’s been five years of stress. I’m just glad we finally have justice,” Anthony Pozza, a family friend who was another beneficiary of Hernan’s will, told reporters following the verdict.
(NEW YORK) — A 747 cargo plane heading to Belgium from New York was forced to return to John F. Kennedy International Airport after a horse escaped from its stall, according to the air traffic control audio.
According to the audio clip, which was obtained by You Can See ATC via Live ATC, the horse got loose within 30 minutes of takeoff.
The Boeing 747 was barely at 31,000 feet when a pilot told air traffic control that a horse had escaped from its stall and that they needed to return to JFK on Thursday, according to FlightRadar24.
In the air traffic control audio, a pilot is heard saying, “We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board. The horse managed to escape its stall. There’s no issue with flying, but we need to go back to New York as we can’t resecure the horse.”
The flight was forced to make a U-turn off the coast of Boston and dump about 20 tons of fuel over the Atlantic, “10 miles west of Martha’s Vinyard,” due to the flight’s weight, according to the audio.
Amid the fuel dump, the pilot requested a veterinarian to be present at JFK when the plane arrived.
Once landed, when ATC asked if the flight required assistance, “On the ground, negative. On the ramp, yes, we have a horse in problem.”
It remains unclear how the horse managed to escape but it remained unrestrained until the plane landed at JFK, according to the audio.
The flight was able to take off a short time later and successfully arrive at Liege Airport on Friday morning, according to FlightRadar24.
Air Atlanta Icelandic, the charter airline operating the flight, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday dropped his effort to move his criminal prosecution over hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels into federal court.
His attorneys asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Trump’s appeal of a ruling that declined to move the case from state court into federal court.
The filing Tuesday did not give a reason but sought “to dismiss his appeal in this case.”
Trump in April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made to the adult film actress days before the 2016 presidential election.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing.
Judge Juan Merchan has tentatively set trial for March 25 but he has signaled a willingness to move the date in order to avoid a conflict with other Trump criminal cases.
(NEW YORK) — Six people were killed in a multi-vehicle crash on an Ohio highway Tuesday morning, officials said.
Five vehicles — including a charter bus carrying Ohio high school students — were involved in the crash, which occurred on Interstate 70 in Etna shortly before 9 a.m. local time, officials said.
More details on the crash were not immediately available. Sean Grady, the director of emergency management for Licking County, told ABC News the Ohio State Highway Patrol will provide more information on the incident, including the fatalities.
A Pioneer Trails charter bus transporting students from Tuscarawas Valley School was among the five vehicles involved in the crash, according to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
“Let me just say that this is our worst nightmare when we have a bus full of children in a crash,” DeWine said during a press briefing Tuesday.
Gov. DeWine, earlier Tuesday, confirmed the crash was fatal but said no other details would be released until all the proper notifications have been made. Eighteen people were transported to seven area hospitals, he said.
Tuscarawas Valley Local Schools superintendent Derek Varansky said students and chaperones were traveling to the Ohio School Boards Association conference in Columbus when their charter bus was involved in a “very serious accident.”
“We understand from law enforcement that there may be multiple serious injuries and we are working to learn the details,” Varansky said in a message to the school community.
In addition to high school students, parents and teachers were among those on board, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Tuscarawas office.
Pioneer Trails said it is “fully cooperating with the authorities as we work to find the cause of the accident.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those impacted by this accident,” the company said in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, there will be no further comments.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators to the crash site. NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy and the team were expected to arrive Tuesday evening, the agency said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Climate change is making it harder to “maintain safe homes and healthy families” in the United States, according to an extensive report compiled by experts across the federal government and released Tuesday.
The report issues a stark warning that extreme events and harmful impacts of climate change that Americans are already experiencing, such as heat waves, wildfires, and extreme rainfall, will worsen as temperatures continue to rise.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, issued every five years, is a definitive breakdown of the latest in climate science coming from 14 different federal agencies, including NOAA, NASA, the EPA, and the National Science Foundation.
This year’s report is more comprehensive than in previous because climate modeling has improved, and the authors took a more holistic look at physical and social impacts of climate change.
“We also have a much more comprehensive understanding of how climate change disproportionately affects those who’ve done the least to cause the problem,” Katherine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and co-author of the report, said in a briefing with reporters.
Some communities are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, the report says, warning that Black, Hispanic, and indigenous communities are more likely to face challenges accessing water as droughts become more intense. Climate change also creates more health risks for marginalized communities, according to the report, which says that “systemic racism and discrimination exacerbate” the impacts.
The report lays out how every part of the US is being impacted by climate change and that some areas are facing multiple worsening impacts at the same time. For example, western states saw heat waves and wildfires during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which strained resources and added to the risk of severe illness.
In the same year, back-to-back storms during the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season are some examples of climate-driven compounding events that caused unprecedented demand on federal emergency response resources.
The report detailed some impacts of climate change that are being felt across the U.S., including increased risk of extreme heat and rainfall, among other weather-related events.
Other impacts cited were coastal erosion and threats to coastal communities from flooding; damage to land including wildfires and damage to forests; warming oceans and damage to ecosystems like coral reefs; risks from extreme events like fires; heatwaves and flooding, and increased inequality for minority or low-income communities.
Some areas of the U.S. are also seeing more specific impacts, such as more intense droughts in the Southwest.
The assessment also notes changes in storm trends as a result of climate change. Heavy snowfall is becoming more common in the Northeast and hurricane trends are changing, with increases in North Atlantic hurricane activity and the intensification of tropical cyclones.
2023 was a record setting year for billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States, officials noted in a White House briefing last week.
The report also highlights some areas of success, saying more action has been taken across the board to reduce emissions and address climate change since the last report in 2018.
Greenhouse gas emissions generated by the U.S. have been steadily decreasing since their peak in 2007, even as the energy demand goes up — mainly due to a vast reduction in the use of coal, according to the report.
Efforts to adapt to and respond to climate change need to be more “transformative,” the report found. This includes reducing the use of coal, building more wind turbines and electrifying buildings and making more efforts to protect people from the impacts of climate change.
Individuals and government leaders should look at the report as a way to help communities across the country mitigate, adapt and become more resilient to the effects of climate change, White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi said.
The assessment demonstrates “both a real and profound environmental risk, but also a real and profound economic opportunity,” Zaidi said. The administration has also noted that adding clean energy jobs is a top priority.
The last time the National Climate Assessment was released, then-President Donald Trump said he did not believe the findings.
The 2018 report found that climate change could lead to massive economic loss, especially by vulnerable communities.
In addition to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which is U.S.-focused, two global climate reports were also released on Tuesday, analyzing the current state of climate change policy action around the world.
UN Climate Change released a progress report on climate action ahead of the COP28 conference set to kick off in Dubai on November 30th. The report highlights that progress on global climate action is moving too slow to keep up with the effects of global warming.
“The Global Stocktake report released by UN Climate Change this year clearly shows where progress is too slow. But it also lays out the vast array of tools and solutions put forward by countries. Billions of people expect to see their governments pick up this toolbox and put it to work,” Simon Stiell, Executive-Secretary of UN Climate Change said.
The 2023 State of Climate Action report was also released on Tuesday, highlighting similar concerns that global climate action is not moving fast enough. “In a year where climate change has been wreaking havoc across the world, it’s clear global efforts to curb emissions are falling short.” Louise Jeffery of NewClimate Institute and one of the report’s lead authors said.
