(NEW YORK) — Two bodies were found Thursday morning following a plane crash in Ohio County after a widespread search had been launched for an instructor and student pilot, according to Kentucky State Police.
A severe thunderstorm had developed in the area the time of the suspected crash, according to the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department.
Officials had been searching for an instructor pilot and a student pilot after the small plane crashed on Wednesday near Whitesville, Kentucky.
The plane was found in a heavily wooded area behind a church and a massive search and rescue operation was launched by foot and air to locate the two pilots.
The plane was reported missing by the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday. The plane was en route to Owensboro from Bowling Green when the tower lost contact.
A debris field was located by drone Thursday morning. An initial search was set up based on the flight path, the pilot’s cellphone pings and the Life360 app.
Once the weather cleared, an airplane and three drones were launched to search the area.
Kentucky State Police and the FAA are investigating the crash.
(NEW YORK) — An estimated $925 million jackpot is up for grabs in the next Powerball drawing on Saturday night.
It’s the fourth-largest purse in the American lottery game’s history and the second-largest this year, according to a press release from Powerball.
The grand prize, which has an estimated cash value of $432.4 million, ballooned passed the $900 million mark after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Wednesday night. However, four tickets — purchased in California, Kansas, Maryland and New York — matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes, Powerball said.
The jackpot was previously won on July 19, when a ticket purchased in California matched all five white balls and the red Powerball to claim $1.08 billion. Since then, there have been 30 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner.
Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. Both advertised prize options do not include federal and jurisdictional taxes.
The jackpot grows based on game sales and interest, but the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
Powerball tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also livestreamed online at Powerball.com.
(WASHINGTON) — A congressional hearing seeks answers about how the deadly Maui wildfires started, could have been prevented or mitigated.
On Aug. 8, a series of deadly wildfires broke out across the Hawaiian island of Maui. At least 97 people were killed and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed.
“We must come to a complete understanding of how this disaster started to ensure Hawaii and other states are prepared to prevent and stop other deadly wildfires,” the committee stated in a recent letter. “To that end, we seek a fuller understanding of the role, if any, of the electric infrastructure in this tragic event.”
According to the House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders, evidence of a downed power line sparking dry brush on the island indicated that Hawaiian Electric equipment may have contributed to the fires. The committee is also questioning what actions Hawaiian Electric took in hardening and modernizing the Maui electric grid amid growing wildfire threats.
The company is at the center of several lawsuits following the tragedy.
On Thursday, the committee will question three Hawaiian Electric and local officials about the blazes. President & CEO of Hawaiian Electric Shelee Kimura, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission chairman Leodoloff R. Asuncion, Jr., Chairman, and Chief Energy Officer of the Hawai’i State Energy Office Mark B. Glick are expected to be in attendance.
Maui County has filed a lawsuit against the local electric company over the damage.
The lawsuit alleges that Maui Electric Company, Limited, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaiʻi Electric Light Company, Inc., and Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service red flag warning on Aug. 7.
A separate class-action lawsuit was also filed against Hawaiian Electric that alleges that the company “inexcusably kept their power lines energized” despite forecasts of high winds that could topple power lines and potentially ignite a fast-spreading blaze.
Kimura said in a statement that the allegations in the lawsuit from Maui County were “factually and legally irresponsible.” She claimed the company’s investigation showed it responded to both fires promptly.
“Our immediate focus is on supporting emergency response efforts on Maui and restoring power for our customers and communities as quickly as possible. At this early stage, the cause of the fire has not been determined and we will work with the state and county as they conduct their review,” Jim Kelly, a spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric Industries, said about the lawsuit.
Mike Caudill/for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Sarah Merlo, a former employee of the Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart, filed a new $20 million lawsuit against the retailer and the estate of shooter Andre Bing for injuries she suffered after the November 2022 mass shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia, that left six dead.
Merlo alleges that years prior to the November 2022 mass shooting, Walmart had been aware of numerous complaints about Bing’s “erratic, disturbing, violent and harassing behavior,” including a complaint Merlo made directly to the company. The lawyers allege that Bing was “acutely paranoid and delusional, believing that he was the victim of conspiracies and unspecified efforts to hack his phone, and was suffering from religious ideations.”
Six people were killed and four others were injured before the suspect — wielding a pistol — shot himself dead, according to the Chesapeake Police Department.
Her lawyers said in the court filing Bing directed “disturbing and harassing behavior towards Sarah due to his personal animus towards her.” They also allege Bing disclosed to Merlo that he liked to kill animals and described how the dead animal carcasses smelled. Merlo’s lawyers also claim that Bing made “veiled threats of active shooter situations to other employees.”
According to Merlo’s account, Bing’s “threatening nature and concerning conduct” had been known to Walmart for more than two years before the November 2022 shooting. The lawsuit alleges that Walmart conducted an investigation but “did nothing at the time and then failed to monitor or respond to additional evidence of Bing’s instability and violent tendencies.”
The alleged shooter chose when to pull the trigger; however, the lawsuit claims that the attack was “fueled by his long-standing paranoia and delusions.”
Merlo also alleges that Bing told another employee to leave before he shot. He later pointed the gun at her as she hid behind a table on her hands and knees. He smiled as he shot her in the face and later six more times, including once in the neck, twice in her upper chest, once in the right elbow and twice in her stomach.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Merlo’s lawyers claim that she has had to “undergo multiple surgeries and faces a lifetime of medical care from these physical injuries and emotional distress.”
ABC News has reached out to Walmart for comment. A rep for Bing’s estate couldn’t immediately be located. The courts have no record of response filings to Merlo’s suit.
Following the shooting in 2022, Walmart said in a statement: “We are shocked at this tragic event.”
“We’re praying for those impacted, the community and our associates. We’re working closely with law enforcement, and we are focused on supporting our associates,” the Walmart spokesperson’s statement concluded.
(NEW YORK) — Investigators probing the murders of four University of Idaho students sought records of Amazon purchases, Apple data and communications and payments made through PayPal/Venmo, according to newly released records.
Among the Amazon click history that investigators sought was information concerning knives, the search warrant shows. Police say they believe Bryan Kohberger, 28, the suspect charged in the Moscow, Idaho, killings on Nov. 13, 2022, used a knife to commit the murders. Although a knife sheath was found near the body of one of the victims, authorities say the murder weapon has not been found.
In a series of search warrant documents posted late Tuesday to the court docket, though they are dated Sept. 8, authorities requested purchase history and payment method details for an Amazon customer whose identity has been redacted.
The warrant also included a request for “all detailed customer click activity pertaining to knives and accessories,” as well as a long list of information that could flesh out the customer’s full shopping movements and interests on the site, including items saved to the cart, suggestions for future purchases and items reviewed by that customer.
The Moscow Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The warrant requests all details from the account for two precise time periods: March 20, 2022, through March 30, 2022, and Nov. 1, 2022 through Dec. 6, 2022.
It was served in mid-May, several months after Kohberger’s initial arrest, and just a week before a North Idaho grand jury handed up an indictment against him.
The requested data was received by law enforcement by the beginning of July, inventoried, and placed into evidence at the Moscow Police Department, according to an affidavit included in court documents.
Also included in the newly posted documents are search warrants for Apple and PayPal/Venmo, for account identities that were also redacted.
In the Apple search, authorities requested extensive account information, including all devices, addresses and numbers linked to the account, means and source of payment, all emails associated with the account and attachments “in order to locate any materials referencing the planning or commission” of the quadruple murders, according to the warrant.
The warrant also requested the contents of any instant messages associated with the Apple account, as well as the contents of all files and other records stored on iCloud.
The warrant for the Apple search was served on Aug. 1, and the data was received by law enforcement on Aug. 9, according to a Moscow police detective’s affidavit.
The documents for the PayPal/Venmo warrant show that authorities asked for records specifically from June 22, 2022, to Dec. 31, 2022, requesting subscriber details like billing information, payment records, all financial transactions and to whom those payments went, geo-location data, screen names, and all associated email addresses and phone numbers.
Law enforcement received the data on Aug. 1, a week after the warrant was served, according to an affidavit from a forensic detective with the Moscow Police Department. An inventory was prepared and the information was placed into evidence at the police department.
PayPal/Venmo declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Representatives for Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed to death four University of Idaho students: Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
After a six-week hunt, police zeroed in on Kohberger as a suspect, tracking his white Hyundai Elantra and cellphone signal data, and recovering what authorities said was his DNA on the button snap of a KA-BAR knife sheath found by one of the victims’ bodies at the crime scene.
He was arrested on Dec. 30 and indicted in May, charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. At his arraignment, he declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.
In court filings, lawyers for Kohberger have said that on the night of the killings, their client was driving around, alone — which, they said, had long been a habit of his — adding he is “not claiming to be at a specific location at a specific time; at this time there is not a specific witness to say precisely where Mr. Kohberger was at each moment of the hours between late night November 12, 2022, and early morning November 13, 2022.”
Kohberger was “out, driving during the late night and early morning hours” on the night in question, his attorneys added.
Though the trial was initially set for Oct. 2, Kohberger waived his right to a speedy trial in August, postponing the trial indefinitely.
(NEW YORK) — Renee Kline’s 4-year-old son attends the local Head Start program in Hampshire County, West Virginia, where he spends his days learning the alphabet and counting.
However, if the federal government shuts down next week, tens of thousands of kids, like him, will be forced to stay home.
As many as 10,000 children around the country would lose access to Head Start programs during a government shutdown, according to the White House, which as of publication, would start at midnight on Oct. 1.
Ten Head Start programs are due to receive funding on Oct. 1 and if that funding isn’t available, they’d risk having to close their doors.
Childcare isn’t readily available or affordable in Hampshire County, Kline says. If Head Start has to shut down, many people — including her — will have to stay home from work to care for their kids.
“That is a direct result of Congress not doing their job and not coming up with an agreement,” says Tommy Sheridan, the deputy director of the National Head Start Association, a central association for the Head Start workforce and national voice of early childhood education. “This is really a punch to children and families who are already struggling and who really need the support provided by Head Start and Early Head Start.”
Head Start is a free, federally funded early childhood development program, to promote school readiness for infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income households.
In the event of a government shutdown, Head Start programs would not be able to draw on funds to pay staff and operating expenses, says Lori Milam, executive director of the West Virginia Head Start Association, where over 7,000 children are enrolled in Head Start.
All Head Start programs are funded federally, but they all vary in how they receive funding and if they receive additional support from other programs. Some may not even be able to cover expenses for a week, according to Miliam.
Head Start also supports children with identified needs, such as physical and developmental delays, children in foster care and children experiencing housing instability. The federal government funds Head Start programs through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
“Head Start provides children from the most marginalized backgrounds with the opportunity to reach their full potential through learning, development, health and wellness support in the earliest years of life,” says Justin van Fleet, president of Theirworld, a global charity focused on early childhood development.
Since its inception in 1965, Head Start programs have helped more than 38 million children and families across the U.S.
Children enrolled in Head Start have a higher likelihood of graduating high school and attending college. Head Start programs have also been seen to break the cycle of poverty by decreasing teen parenthood and criminal engagement. The programs received nearly $12 billion in funding in 2023.
The programs due to pull funding on Oct. 1 will be most immediately impacted by the shutdown — like the program ran by Community Action Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, where 311 children are enrolled.
That program was affected by the 2013 shutdown, says Clare Higgins, the executive director of Community Action Pioneer Valley.
“We stayed open through a combination of some different funding. We had extended our credit line at the bank so we could keep the program open. So that is our goal right now,” she says.
Right now, they have enough cash on hand to keep the program open for up to two weeks.
“After that, we won’t be able to,” she says.
Kids enrolled in programs like these would lose out on nutritious meals and learning essential skills, experts say.
And it’s not just the 10,000 children who might immediately lose access that would be affected.
“If the shutdown should last it would then impact many more children,” Milam says.
Kline says that Head Start has been a huge help to families like hers. Along with her 4-year-old, she also has a first-grader who previously went through Head Start. She says that it has been extremely helpful in getting her daughter ready for school and working on her social-emotional skills.
“Head Start helps families to be able to work. In addition to that, (it) helps our children learn and grow and get them ready for society,” she says.
“We take some of the most families with the lowest income and large challenges, in terms of meeting the needs of their families,” Higgins says. “This is the place where their kids are cared for educated and fed.”
This would all be jeopardized by a shutdown.
“We’re deeply concerned that Congress is putting children and families at risk by not passing [the bill] for the next fiscal year and we are very concerned about what’s going to happen over the next couple of weeks,” Sheridan says.
(WASHINGTON) — A district judge has denied former President Donald Trump’s effort to have her recuse herself from presiding over his federal election interference case.
Washington, D.C., District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the argument from Trump’s legal team regarding statements she made during her sentencing of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
In an October 2022 hearing cited by Trump’s attorneys, Judge Chutkan described the Capitol assault as “nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government” by Trump’s supporters, who “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man. It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
In arguing for Chutkan’s recusal, Trump’s attorneys said that “the public meaning of this statement is inescapable — President Trump is free, but should not be. As an apparent prejudgment of guilty, these comments are disqualifying standing alone.”
In another example, Trump’s attorneys cited a December 2021 hearing in which Chutkan, addressing a convicted rioter, said that “the people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.”
“Public statements of this sort create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system,” Trump’s attorneys argued in their bid to have Chutkan disqualified.
In her ruling Wednesday, Chutkan also disputed that her statements were based on facts she observed through news coverage, rather than those presented to her through the defendants themselves in their arguments asking for leniency.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election by enlisting a slate of so-called “fake electors,” using the Justice Department to conduct “sham election crime investigations,” trying to enlist the vice president to “alter the election results,” and promoting false claims of a stolen election as the Jan. 6 riot raged — all in an effort to subvert democracy and remain in power.
Chutkan has set a start date of March 4, 2024, for the trial.
(SALIDA, Colo.) — The remains of Suzanne Morphew, a Colorado mother of two who went missing in 2020, have been found, authorities said.
Human remains located on Sept. 22 during an unrelated search in the town of Moffat in Saguache County were positively identified as Suzanne Morphew on Wednesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said.
“Specific information about the location and the state of the remains are being withheld at this time,” the agency said.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing from her home in Chaffee County on May 10, 2020, which was Mother’s Day, after she never returned home from a bike ride, the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
Her husband, Barry Morphew, 55, was arrested almost a year later on charges including first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in connection with his wife’s disappearance. But all charges were dropped in April 2022, just days before he was set to stand trial.
The move came after the judge presiding over the case barred prosecutors from using most of their key witnesses at trial as punishment for repeatedly failing to turn over evidence in the defendant’s favor.
The case was dismissed without prejudice, which allows prosecutors to file charges against Barry Morphew again.
No arrests have been made since Suzanne Morphew’s remains were located, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said.
“While this case has garnered attention from around the world, it has touched our community and the sheriff’s office deeply,” Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said in a statement. “We have never stopped our investigation and will continue to follow all leads in pursuit of justice for Suzanne.”
Spezze said that while locating her remains “is a critical component of this investigation, and for her family, we are left with many more questions than answers.”
Family notifications have been made following the formal identification of the remains, authorities said.
Barry Morphew filed a $15 million federal lawsuit in May against prosecutors, the sheriff and several investigators, claiming that his life has been ruined by false accusations.
“It’s very hurtful to lose your reputation and your integrity,” Barry Morphew told ABC News in an exclusive interview following the filing.
When asked whether he has anything to do with his wife’s disappearance, Barry Morphew told ABC News: “Absolutely not.”
“They’ve got tunnel vision and they looked at one person and they’ve got too much pride to say they’re wrong and look somewhere else,” he added. “I don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
The couple’s daughters, Mallory and Macy Morphew, told ABC News that the last three years have been “literally our worst nightmare,” and they never doubted their father’s innocence.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — A Baton Rouge police deputy chief was placed on leave a week after his son, an officer with the department, was arrested for allegedly tasing and handcuffing a suspect, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Troy Lawrence Sr. was placed on administrative leave while the department looks into the use of force claims against the BRPD, the source said.
The police department faces several lawsuits over the treatment of detainees, including at a now-shuttered police warehouse that officers allegedly called the “brave cave,” according to complaints made against the department.
The FBI announced over the weekend they are investigating the Baton Rouge Police Department following allegations that some officers “abused their authority.”
The New Orleans FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana have opened the probe, with investigators “reviewing the matter for potential federal violations,” the FBI New Orleans said in a statement on Friday, while urging anyone with information on the case to contact them.
The department’s police chief reported the allegations of the “brave cave” to the FBI, a source familiar with the investigation said Tuesday.
In a statement to ABC News, the Baton Rouge Police Department said they are “committed to addressing these troubling accusations and have initiated administrative and criminal investigations.”
(NEW YORK) — Ghost guns have been found at a licensed Manhattan day care, the New York City police announced, just weeks after drugs were found at a different day care in the city where a 1-year-old boy died from fentanyl exposure.
The Manhattan investigation began when the NYPD looked into people, including minors, who were allegedly buying ghost gun parts and materials to print 3D firearms, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said at a news conference Wednesday.
“Some of the purchases were made through fraudulent means, including the alleged identity theft of multiple victims across the United States,” Weiner said.
A search warrant was executed Tuesday at the East Harlem home of 18-year-old Jamal Coley, who was allegedly involved in 3D printing guns, police said.
Coley’s home is also a licensed day care operated by Coley’s mother, police said.
In the day care, investigators found items including a 3D printer, 3D printing tools, two completed 3D printed firearms and one 3D printed assault pistol in the final stages of assembly, Weiner said.
Two minors and one adult have been arrested, police said.
Untraceable firearms, known as ghost guns, are increasingly being created with 3D printers, “demanding the attention of our intelligence division,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.
“They can be made in your home, they can be made anonymously, and they are cheap,” Caban said, and “these types of guns have captured the attention of our kids.”
The East Harlem day care opened in February 2021 and was last inspected in February 2023, according to New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The department found three violations related to documentation around feeding, sleep schedules, preferences from families and verifications from doctors, a department official said. The facility was cited and took corrective action, and then verified their paperwork was completed, a department official said.
“To the parents who are dropping their children off every day to these centers,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “we’re going to remain vigilant, we’re going to continue to modify the rules … to stay ahead of bad people that are doing bad things in environments where our children are.”
On Sept. 15, just 10 days before the search at the Harlem day care, 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici died following exposure to fentanyl at his day care in the Bronx.
Three other children, ranging in age from 8 months to 2 years, were hospitalized and treated with Narcan, police said.
Investigators found a kilo of fentanyl stored on kids’ play mats at the day care, along with a device to press drugs into bricks for sale, according to court records. In a trap floor under the day care’s play area, investigators found fentanyl, other narcotics and drug paraphernalia, police said.
