National

(COLUMBUS, Mont.) — Parts of a freight train carrying hazardous materials remain in the Yellowstone River in southern Montana after a bridge collapsed over the weekend.

Nine mangled cars — six that contained hot asphalt, three holding molten sulfur and one with scrap metal — were still in the rushing water on Monday evening as cleanup work continued, according to Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger.

“Some divers were brought in to see about how we would attach to those cars,” Cowger said during a press conference. “While those assessments were being done, it was noticed that there is still some products of asphalt that’s leaking out of those cars that are damaged.”

The incident occurred early Saturday near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles west of Billings, in a rural area of the Yellowstone River Valley. The train was traveling over a bridge when it collapsed and 16 cars derailed, sending 10 of them into the river below, some 110 miles downstream from Yellowstone National Park. No injuries were reported.

It remains unclear whether the derailment caused the bridge to collapse or if the collapse precipitated the derailment.

“We honestly have no idea what happened first, whether it was the bridge or the derailment,” Cowger told reporters on Monday evening. “There was an eastbound train across that bridge an hour before and things were fine with the bridge then. So there’s an investigation to figure what that looks like and what exactly happened. That’ll take some time as cars are pulled out of the river.”

The train’s operator, Montana Rail Link, is developing a cleanup plan and will be responsible for all related costs. Both asphalt and sulfur “harden and solidify quickly when interacting with water and modeling suggests that significant downstream movement of material is unlikely,” according to a statement from Montana Rail Link spokesperson Andy Garland.

Two cars containing sodium hydrosulfide were successfully offloaded and removed on Sunday via a 120-ton crane, according to Cowger. There has been no release involving this material, according to Montana Rail Link.

“We’ve made some good progress today with some cleanup,” Joe Racicot, president of Montana Rail Link, said during the press conference on Monday evening.

Test results from water samples taken on Saturday indicated the materials from the derailment had not affected water quality, according to Shasta Steinweden, complaint coordinator for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s Enforcement Program. She said the tests showed no presence of petroleum, while the sulfur levels detected were consistent with upstream water samples.

“We are awaiting results from Sunday’s and Monday’s samples,” Steinweden told reporters on Monday evening. “We will continue to evaluate our sampling plans and locations and expanding those based on the evolving nature of this incident.”

Based on the results so far, Steinweden said officials “don’t foresee any long-term damages” to water quality, though testing will continue for “as long as needed.”

“What we are going to be assessing and looking at as far as long-term cleanup will be asphalt that is on the banks of the river and looking to remove all of that,” she added.

When asked how much substance is being leaked on an hourly or daily basis, Steinweden told reporters: “We can’t determine that at this time. However, when the tank cars are removed, we will do an assessment on what is left product-wise in those cars and from that information, we will be able to tell more accurately what our release estimate is.”

And regarding the possible damages to fish and wildlife in the affected area, Steinweden said: “We don’t know, which is why we’re calling in the experts to sort of make those determinations.”

“What we are concerned about is, you know, the fish and wildlife potentially coming into contact with the product,” she added.

The Colombus fire chief noted that there “isn’t a sheen on the water or anything like that,” since the product is “somewhat solidifying together as it comes out.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has invited both federal and state fish and wildlife agencies to come to the site in Montana’s Stillwater County and assess how the derailment has impacted wildlife, according to Joni Sandoval, the EPA on-scene coordinator. A portion of the Yellowstone River remains closed, she said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Ralph Yarl, the teenager who was shot after mistakenly going to the wrong house to pick up his siblings, opened up about the harrowing experience for the first time in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts that is set to air on Tuesday morning.

Yarl told Roberts that his mother asked him to pick up his twin brothers from a friend’s house, but he had never been there before and accidentally arrived at the wrong address. According to Yarl, he pulled his car into the driveway and walked up the steps and rang the doorbell and then waited for “a long time” until an older man with a gun opened the door. They were separated by another glass door, Yarl recalled.

“He points [the gun] at me … so I kinda, like, brace and I turn my head,” Yarl told Roberts. “Then it happened. And then I’m on the ground … and then I fall on the glass. The shattered glass. And then before I know it I’m running away shouting, ‘Help me, help me.'”

Yarl was shot in the head and in the right arm on the evening of April 13 by Andrew Lester — a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, according to police. The teenager, who celebrated his 17th birthday last month, suffered a traumatic brain injury, his family previously told ABC News.

Lester, 84, was charged with one count of felony assault in the first degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, Clay County prosecuting attorney Zachary Thompson said during a press conference on April 17.

Lester pleaded not guilty and was released on April 18 on a $200,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31 after a judge agreed to partially seal the evidence in the case in response to a protective order filed by Lester’s attorney, Steven Salmon.

“In this case, the court entered an order prohibiting the dissemination of information from the discovery by both the prosecution and defense,” Salmon told ABC News in a statement on Monday. “As a party to the criminal case, any statement from Mr. Lester would certainly violate that order. I can say Mr. Lester is looking forward to the upcoming preliminary hearing.”

Yarl told Roberts that after he was shot, he was bleeding from his head and was surprised that he was as “alert” as he was. He said that his “instincts took over” and he went looking for help, but according to Yarl, he had to approach multiple homes after the first house he approached declined to help him and locked the door.

“So then I go to the next house across the street. No one answers. And the house to the right of that house, I go there and someone opens the door and tells me to wait for the police,” he said.

Yarl’s mother, Cleo Nagbe, told Roberts that after her son didn’t return from picking up his siblings, she was worried and drove around looking for him.

Shortly after, she said she received a phone call from police, telling her that Ralph was shot so she headed straight to the hospital.

“It was traumatic,” she said.

According to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News, Lester told police that he “believed someone was attempting to break into the house” and grabbed a gun before going to the door because he was scared.

Lester, who is white, claimed that he saw a “Black male approximately 6 feet tall” pulling on the door handle and “shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door.” He said that the Black male ran away and he immediately called 911.

Police spoke with Yarl on April 14 while he was recovering at Children’s Mercy Hospital. According to the probable cause statement, he told police that he rang the doorbell and said that he didn’t pull on the door knob.

Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, told ABC News last month that after the shooting her nephew didn’t want to go back home because he was shot in the neighborhood where he also lived.

But since then, Yarl and his family have relocated. He said that he is seeing a therapist and hoping to continue his recovery by focusing on his passions for chemical engineering and for music.

“I’m just a kid and not larger than life because this happened to me,” he said. “I’m just gonna keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy. And just living my life the best I can, and not let this bother me.”

Yarl, who played the bass clarinet during his interview on GMA, also plays the saxophone, the tenor saxophone, the clarinet and the contrabass clarinet. He told Roberts that music helped him cope during his recovery.

“Classical music kinda resonates with me,” he said. “Just the feeling that it creates and the fact that you can make it yourself … it kinda invigorates me.”

Nagbe said that her son’s recovery has been a “blessing” and the family is “overwhelmingly grateful” for the outpouring of love and support that they have gotten since the shooting — from people donating to the fund, to those writing letters of support for Ralph.

“Every day I sit and I read a letter and I cry,” she said.

Nagbe told Roberts that Ralph and his family have been writing thank you notes to the people who sent him letters.

“I just feel that if they took the time to send Ralph a letter, I owe them the time to write them a thank you note,” she said.

Asked what justice looks like for him, Yarl said, “Justice is just the rule of the law, regardless of race, ethnicity, and age.”

“[Lester] should be convicted for the crimes that he made,” he added. “I am past having any personal hatred for him.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Nine years before he was accused of killing four college students in Idaho, Bryan Kohberger was arrested in his native Pennsylvania and charged with misdemeanor theft for allegedly stealing his sister’s iPhone, according to records reviewed by ABC News.

It was Kohberger’s father, Michael, who reported the incident to police, according to the court records.

According to the records, Michael Kohberger told law enforcement Bryan had warned him “not to do anything stupid” after learning his son had taken the phone, adding that his son had struggled with drug addiction.

Bryan Kohberger’s earlier run-in with the law, as described in these records, is only now coming to light, as he prepares to defend himself against charges he killed four University of Idaho students last fall.

According to the records, Bryan Kohberger was 19 years old when he was arrested for the alleged theft in 2014. He served no jail time, according to officials. There is now no public record of that arrest or the outcome of the case.

Monroe County, Pennsylvania, offers first-time offenders the opportunity to enter into a pretrial program called “Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition,” which allows for charges to be dropped and the record to be “expunged” once the accused successfully completes probation.

Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney representing the Kohberger family, declined to comment on the record describing the earlier arrest. The district attorney’s office in Monroe County also had no comment.

In a court filing Monday, Idaho prosecutors announced they intend to seek the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger for the alleged murders.

It remains to be seen whether the alleged incident in 2014, and his previous alleged history with substance abuse, will have any bearing — or offer any clues — in relation to what happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, when four college students — Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21 — were stabbed to death at an off-campus home on King Road in Moscow, Idaho.

A source briefed on the case told ABC News the alleged 2014 incident is now a subject of inquiry for prosecutors in Idaho, as they prepare for an impending capital trial that could start as early as October.

“You want to get all the puzzle pieces figured out, even as you keep finding new pieces,” said ABC News law enforcement contributor Richard Frankel, a retired senior FBI official and former prosecutor in the New York City suburb of Suffolk County.

“You’re working to figure out how they all fit together,” Frankel said, speaking generally on investigative procedure for building a case.

“One, that’s a big jump to go from [an alleged] non-violent theft — and from a family member — to being charged with multiple homicides. And two, eight years is a long time for nothing to happen,” Frankel said. “So, I would want to know, both as a prosecutor and as the investigator, what he did in those years in between?”

ABC News contributor Robert Boyce, the retired chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department, said, “What you look for now, is, was this a foundational moment, and was this a precursor for things to come.”

A trial in the quadruple homicide has been set for Oct. 2, though that could be delayed.

Bryan Kohberger is due to appear at the Latah County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon, for another in an ongoing series of pretrial hearings connected to the murder case. He is being held without bail at the Latah County Jail.

Bryan Kohberger’s team is pushing for a pause in his case while the defense and prosecution argue over the scope of which grand jury materials can or should be released. His lawyers are looking to determine whether there are grounds to dismiss his indictment based on the way the grand jury was selected, according to court documents.

The defense is asking Idaho prosecutors to disclose more information about their investigation, including more detail on their forensic DNA analyses, and information obtained from cellphone records, according to court filings.

The hearing Tuesday is also expected to focus on Bryan Kohberger’s request for more time to decide whether to offer an alibi at trial, as his attorneys say they are trying to navigate the “voluminous” and “still ongoing” discovery process, according to recent court filings. Prosecutors said they wouldn’t object to a “reasonable extension” to decide, so long as any potential alibi is offered within the next month.

Back in Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014, Bryan Kohberger had “recently exited a rehab center and rejoined the family,” his father told police, according to the records reviewed by ABC News. Home from rehab, Bryan took his sister Melissa’s iPhone, which had an estimated value of $400, Michael Kohberger told police, according to the records.

Authorities said, according to the records, Bryan Kohberger paid a friend $20 to pick him up and take him to a local mall, where he sold the phone for $200 at an automated kiosk for used electronics.

The records say Bryan Kohberger was charged with misdemeanor theft and offer no further explanation about what happened from there.

“With any case, we’d always do a timeline. And on this case, I would want to do the timeline not just of the actual [alleged homicide] incident, minute by minute — but also I would want to do a behavioral timeline from his teens into his adulthood, because I want to know who this guy is,” Frankel said.

“It all goes to the assessment of his character — it may also help me when I interview other people about him, because I may know what the right questions are to ask going in,” Frankel added.

Bryan Kohberger, now 28, was indicted in Idaho last month and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary.

At his Idaho arraignment in late May, Bryan Kohberger declined to offer a plea, so the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Authorities allege that in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Bryan Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, broke into an off-campus home and stabbed to death the four students from the nearby University of Idaho.

After a more than six-week hunt, according to police documents, police zeroed in on Bryan Kohberger as a suspect, tracking his white Hyundai Elantra, cellphone signal data, and recovering what authorities say was his DNA on a knife sheath found next to one of the victims’ bodies.

That DNA evidence taken from the knife sheath at the crime scene “showed a statistical match” with a cheek swab taken directly from Bryan Kohberger after his arrest, authorities said in a recent filing.

Bryan Kohberger’s attorneys pushed back on that analysis in several recent court filings, casting doubt on whether that DNA evidence irrefutably implicates their client, saying the “statistical probability is not an absolute,” and pointing to what they called a “total lack of DNA evidence” from the victims in Kohberger’s home or car.

He was arrested on Dec. 30, 2022, at his family’s home in Pennsylvania, after driving cross-country to spend the holidays in Albrightsville.

Some of Bryan Kohberger’s childhood acquaintances have recalled to ABC News that the “quiet” but “funny” person they knew began to alienate some of his friends in high school, as his drug habit developed.

Casey Arntz, who went to high school with Kohberger, told ABC News he would ask her for rides that she later found out were to buy drugs.

“Bryan used me to, you know, drive him around and get heroin,” Arntz said. “A lot of people are like, well, why were you still friends with him after that? And I’m like, because you gotta forgive him. I mean, you can’t fault him for being so sucked down this hole. And I did, I did forgive him.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHICAGO) — A Chicago-area pharmacist was convicted of stealing and selling COVID-19 vaccination cards, the Justice Department announced on Monday.

Tangtang Zhao, 36, of Chicago, stole CDC-issued COVID-19 vaccination cards from the pharmacy where he worked, and sold them to buyers across the country through an online marketplace, according to the DOJ.

“During a three-week timeframe in March and April 2021, Zhao posted listings for over 650 COVID-19 vaccination cards that he advertised as “authentic” and “straight from the CDC.” In total, he sold 630 cards to approximately 200 unique buyers, who paid Zhao more than $5,600,” according to a Justice Department press release.

A federal jury convicted Zhao on a dozen counts of theft of government property, according to the DOJ. At trial, the government showed eBay messages that were sent by Zhao to buyers of the fake vaccination card, court records show

Zhao’s lawyer Gal Pissetzky told ABC News in a statement that his client is “disappointed in the verdict” and plans to appeal.

“The COVID-19 blank vaccination cards were not government property, where the government did not maintain supervision and control over the cards once they were delivered to providers like Walgreens,” Pissetzky said. “The government had absolutely no supervision over the cards and did not control how the cards were handled.”

Zhao is slated to be sentenced on Nov. 28 and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to the DOJ.

The Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) told ABC News in August 2021 that it began receiving “increasing reports of individuals creating, purchasing and using fake COVID-19 vaccination cards,” cautioning the spread of bogus cards can leave victims’ personal identity vulnerable.

Employees and the owner of an upstate New York midwife practice were indicted on federal charges in April for allegedly running a fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination clinic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York.

Between June 2021 and March 2022, Sage Femme Midwifery, located in Albany, created more than 2,600 false entries in the state’s vaccination database, and distributed fake COVID-19 vaccination cards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to people who were not vaccinated, including individuals living in Brooklyn and Staten Island, according to court documents.

The FBI and HHS-OIG investigated the case involving Zhao.

ABC News’ Mary Kekatos, Alexander Mallin, Kaitlyn Folmer and Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the gruesome University of Idaho murders, according to a new court filing.

The filing said, “The State gives this notice based on the fact that it has not identified or been provided with any mitigating circumstances sufficient to prohibit the triers of fact from considering all penalties authorized by the Idaho legislature including the possibility of a capital sentence. Consequently, considering all evidence currently known to the State, the State is compelled to file this notice of intent to seek the death penalty.”

Kohberger is accused of stabbing to death four college students in an off-campus house on Nov. 13, 2022.

The victims were: Kaylee Goncalves; her lifelong best friend and roommate Madison Mogen; a third roommate, Xana Kernodle; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin. Two other roommates survived the shocking crime that garnered national intrigue.

After a six-week search for a suspect, 28-year-old Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30, 2022. Kohberger was a Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the murders.

Kohberger chose to “stand silent” at his arraignment last month. By not responding, the judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

After the May arraignment, prosecutors had 60 days to file notice if they were going to pursue the death penalty.

Kohberger’s trial is set for Oct. 2.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KANSAS CITY) — Ralph Yarl, the Kansas City, Missouri, teenager who was shot after mistakenly going to the wrong house to pick up his siblings, opened up about the harrowing experience for the first time in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts.

“I’m just a kid and not larger than life because this happened to me,” Yarl told Roberts in the interview set to air Tuesday. “I’m just gonna keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy. And just living my life the best I can, and not let this bother me.”

Yarl’s aunt, Faith Spoonmore, told ABC News last month that after the shooting in April her nephew didn’t want to go back home because he was shot in the neighborhood where he also lived.

“Ralph is currently living with me,” she told ABC News in May. “He’s been with me since the event. He is not comfortable going back to that area,” she said. “He is not comfortable going back to his house, his home … which is so unfortunate because he had a lot of great memories in that home.”

Ralph Yarl raises money for traumatic brain injuries following wrong house shooting
But since then, Yarl and his family have relocated. He said that he is seeing a therapist and hoping to continue his recovery by focusing on his passions for chemical engineering and for music.

Yarl was shot on the evening of April 13 by Andrew Lester – a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, according to police, after the teenager accidentally went to the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers. Yarl was 16 at the time; he celebrated his 17th birthday last month.

Lester, 84, was charged with one count of felony assault in the first degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, Clay County prosecuting attorney Zachary Thompson said during a press conference on April 17.

According to a probable cause statement obtained by ABC News, Lester told police that he “believed someone was attempting to break into the house” and grabbed a gun before going to the door because he was scared.

Lester, who is white, claimed that he saw a “Black male approximately 6 feet tall” pulling on the door handle and “shot twice within a few seconds of opening the door.” He said that the Black male ran away and he immediately called 911.

Police spoke with Yarl on April 14 while he was recovering at Children’s Mercy Hospital. According to the probable cause statement, he told police that he rang the doorbell and said that he didn’t pull on the door knob.

Lester pleaded not guilty and was released on April 18 on a $200,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31 after a judge agreed to partially seal the evidence in the case in response to a protective order filed by Lester’s attorney, Steven Salmon.

“In this case, the court entered an order prohibiting the dissemination of information from the discovery by both the prosecution and defense,” Steven Salmon, Lester’s attorney, told ABC News in a statement on Monday. “As a party to the criminal case, any statement from Mr. Lester would certainly violate that order. I can say Mr. Lester is looking forward to the upcoming preliminary hearing.”

Judge rules Andrew Lester case to be partially sealed in the shooting of teenager Ralph Yarl
Yarl’s family previously told ABC News that he has been experiencing migraines after suffering a traumatic brain injury that has restricted his ability to participate in activities he loves, like playing music.

Yarl attended a walk/run event in Kansas City, Missouri, on Memorial Day along with his family to help raise money for traumatic brain injuries.

He did not make any public comments during the event, but his mother, Cleo Nagbe, shared an update on her son’s recovery.

“When you get a traumatic brain injury, everybody expects you to look one way, feel one way or act one way, but it’s not that way,” she said. “And everybody’s asking me: ‘Have you gone back to work yet, has Ralph gone back to school yet?’ That’s not the case. A brain injury is a process, it’s not an event. It takes time.”

Watch Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with Ralph Yarl on “Good Morning America,” Tuesday, June 27, starting at 7 a.m. on ABC.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DENVER) — Mark Michalek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver Field Office, confirmed that the agency has opened a federal investigation into the Club Q shooting in November 2022.

In a press conference following the sentencing of Anderson Lee Aldrich, the shooter in the Colorado Springs mass shooting that left five dead, Michalek said on Monday the FBI is working in coordination with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in an ongoing investigation into Aldrich and the tragedy.

Aldrich took a plea deal, pleading guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree on Monday. They pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes.

Aldrich will receive five consecutive life sentences without the possibility for parole on the murder charges. Aldrich will also receive 46 consecutive 48-year sentences for the attempted murder counts followed by mandatory periods of parole.

As the country awaits the outcome of a federal investigation, District Attorney Michael Allen suggests that the potential for the death sentence at the federal level may have influenced Aldrich’s decision to take the plea deal.

“The death penalty in the federal system, I think, is a big reason why this defendant decided to take a guilty plea with the sentence that we achieved in this case.” Allen said. “Part of that is that in the federal system, if you show substantial mitigation — so if you take full responsibility at the state level — that can sometimes avoid a federal death sentence pursuit. Whether that happens or not, again, is up to the federal US Attorney’s Office.”

Officials said Aldrich opened fire as soon as they walked into Club Q just minutes before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022. Patrons at the venue tackled Aldrich, subduing them until police arrived, according to witnesses.

Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance died in the attack. At least 19 people were also injured in the shooting.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LOS ANGELES) — Three people died after a spate of tragic accidents at United States National Parks in June.

A stepfather and his stepson died on Friday following a tragic series of events, beginning with his younger stepson, 14, losing consciousness while hiking the Big Bend National Park’s Marufo Vega Trail in Texas.

The stepfather and his two stepsons were attempting the challenging hike while the area experienced temperatures upwards of 119 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a press release from the National Park Service.

“You can’t really carry enough water for these conditions,” Park Information Officer Tom VandenBerg said. “The sun doesn’t set until around 9:00 p.m., and the hottest time is between 5-7 p.m., right around when this incident happened.”

After his younger stepson, 14, lost consciousness, his stepfather departed the scene to retrieve his vehicle and search for help while his elder stepson, 21, attempted to carry his younger brother back to the trailhead, according to the release.

After realizing his brother no longer had a heartbeat, the older brother left his younger brother on the trail to search for help, according to VandenBerg. The 21-year-old hitchhiked and found help nearby, at a park employee’s home.

Meanwhile, their stepfather was able to reach his car but fatally crashed over a nearby embankment, according to the press release.

By 7:30 p.m., park rangers and U.S. border control agents reached the scene to find the teenager’s body. Approximately 30 minutes later, officials located the family’s car and the stepfather, who was pronounced dead at the car crash scene.

The incident came amid excessive heat warnings for the local area, including the Marufo trail, which lacks abundant sources of shade or water.

The older stepson has since been reunited with his remaining family in Florida, according to VandenBerg.

Over 2,000 miles northwest of Big Bend, officials in Washington’s Olympic National Park recovered the body on Wednesday of a New York man who was visiting in early June.

On June 9, 37-year-old Travis Valenti from Massapequa, New York, was kayaking with his fiancée when his kayak began to take on water, according to a National Park Service press release.

“As Mr. Valenti’s fiancée attempted rescue, her kayak overturned, resulting in her also entering the water,” the release noted. “She was able to swim to shore but unfortunately Mr. Valenti struggled and could not.”

On June 21, Christian Aid Ministries, which has run a volunteer search and rescue team since 2016, utilized a remote-operated vehicle to locate Valenti’s body 394 feet under the surface of Lake Crescent. The volunteers used a “grabber tool” to bring the body to the lake’s surface.

A press release from the National Park Service said that the lake is not only deep but maintains a cold body temperature of 50 degrees, which can eventually incapacitate swimmers’ ability to breathe.

The three deaths come as the National Park Service approaches a summer visitor surge. In 2022, the National Park Service received 312 million visitors, only 6 percent lower than the Park Service’s all-time record for visitors.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Agents from the United States Secret Service have testified before the grand jury investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to ABC News.

Agents provided testimony as part of the grand jury’s probe into whether there were any crimes committed during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the source said.

It is not known how many agents testified or whether they mentioned former President Donald Trump.

The grand jury is impaneled in Washington, D.C., by special counsel Jack Smith, who is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents following his departure from the White House.

ABC News has previously reported that Secret Service agents testified in front of the grand jury in the documents probe. That investigation resulted in a 37-count indictment against Trump for allegedly refusing to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.

Then former president, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, has dismissed the probes as a politically motivated witch hunt.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ATLANTA) — Georgia lawmakers denounced antisemitic protests seen in at least two Jewish places of worship, as well as antisemitic fliers in the state over the weekend.

“There is absolutely no place for this hate and antisemitism in our state,” said Gov. Brian Kemp in an online statement. “I share in the outrage over this shameful act and stand with Georgians everywhere in condemning it. We remain vigilant in the face of these disgusting acts of bigotry.”

The news comes just a few months after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that antisemitic incidents surged to historic levels in 2022. The U.S. saw a total of 3,697 incidents reported across the nation in 2022, the highest level of antisemitic activity since the ADL started keeping records in 1979, according to the organization.

Cobb County Police say 11 protesters targeted Chabad of Cobb, a synagogue and Jewish community center. In footage of the protest, captured by ABC affiliate WSB-TV, protesters could be seen waving Nazi flags in front of the community center and shouting hate speech.

Leaders of Chabad of Cobb say they are working closely with county officials and law enforcement to ensure the safety of their patrons. Cobb County Police officials say the protesters are believed to be part of a small affiliation from various states across the U.S.

“Ultimately, we must remember that the most potent response to darkness is to increase in light,” said Chabad of Cobb in a statement. “Let’s use this unfortunate incident to increase in acts of goodness and kindness, Jewish pride and greater Jewish engagement.”

Temple Beth Israel, a synagogue in Macon, Georgia, was also the target of an antisemitic protest, with demonstrators allegedly shouting obscenities and hate speech.

Temple Beth Israel’s Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar said the community will continue to “stand united against hatred and bigotry in all of its forms. We reject the poisonous ideologies which seeks to divide, and instead celebrate and embrace the timeless teachings of our faith.”

Bahar continued, “Antisemitism is not a new phenomenon. It pains me greatly that today in Middle Georgia we have been forced to confront it twice,” referencing the distribution of suspicious antisemitic packages and hate messages in the town of Warner Robins, Georgia.

Warner Robins Police confirmed the presence of such packages, which they say have similarly been seen in other cities across the U.S.

Local leaders, including Sen. Raphael Warnock and state Rep. Esther Panitch, spoke out against antisemitism in response to the protests.

Panitch, Georgia’s only Jewish legislator, who sponsored a bill to define antisemitism in state law, applauded community members who counterprotested against demonstrators.

“Once again, white supremacists have shown themselves to be the bottom feeding haters they have always been, not contributing to society but only seeking to destroy,” she said in a tweet. “Protesting on the Sabbath at a synagogue and summer camp for Jewish children couldn’t be more vile.”

“Yesterday we saw antisemitism on display in Macon, and now in metro Atlanta. This has got to stop,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock in a tweet.

“Praying for our Jewish community in Georgia and beyond. We must all raise our voices loudly against this vile hate.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.