(MIAMI) — Two men were found dead at the former Versace mansion in Miami just one day before the 24th anniversary of the death of fashion designer Gianni Versace there.
A member of the housekeeping staff at The Villa Casa Casuarina found the two men in a room Wednesday afternoon, and police and fire rescue arrived on scene around 1:30 p.m.
The victims were identified as Adam Rashap, 31, of New Jersey, and Alexander Gross, 30, of Pennsylvania, according to police.
Both had gunshot wounds to the head, and a preliminary investigation points to the incident being an “apparent double suicide,” Ernesto Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Miami Beach Police Department, told ABC News.
The scene was contained to the hotel room, and detectives have launched a full investigation, Miami Beach police said in a statement on Wednesday.
The hotel did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Versace, the iconic Italian fashion designer, purchased the mansion in 1992, and today the Spanish-style villa operates as a restaurant and boutique hotel.
Thursday marks the 24th anniversary of Versace’s death. He was returning home to the mansion on his usual morning walk from the nearby News Cafe when he was shot in the head on the front steps of the home by Andrew Cunanan.
Cunanan went on a violent killing spree in which he killed four other men before targeting Versace, investigators said at the time. He died by suicide eight days after Versace’s shooting.
(NEW YORK) — Days after an avid long-distance runner mysteriously vanished in Northern California, police are “further scaling down operations” to find him, they announced Wednesday evening.
Philip Kreycik, 37, drove to the Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park at about 11 a.m. Saturday, parking at the Moller Trail staging area, to go for an 8-mile run, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Berkeley resident told his wife he’d be gone for an hour, police said. He has been missing ever since.
“Philip is an endurance athlete and is in top physical condition. He is also well versed on rural terrain and outdoor environments,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly said in a statement Tuesday. “Temperatures that day on the ridge were about 106 degrees but were not a deterrent for Phillip who thrives in extreme environments.”
“This is a very bright man who went to Harvard and MIT, a man that’s analytical in his thinking, a guy that runs ultramarathons,” Kelly told ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV.
Wednesday marked “the last fully operational day” of the “exhaustive” five-day search, Pleasanton Police Department said, announcing that the department and aiding agencies are “further scaling down operations” to find him.
The search included more than a dozen agencies from across the state and nearly 300 volunteers, police said. Dogs, drones, helicopters and an airplane with advanced thermal imagery were also deployed, the sheriff’s office said.
Kreycik is the father of a 3-year-old and 10-month-old with his wife, Jen Yao.
“I know in my heart of hearts he’s out there,” Yao told KGO. “He’s out there and he’s alive and he’s waiting for us. And maybe he’s dehydrated, maybe injured, delirious.”
Police said Kreycik is described as white with a thin build, brown hair and brown eyes. He has no known health conditions.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Pleasanton Police Department at (925) 931-5107.
(NEW YORK) — A 23-year-old Wisconsin man is being held by authorities for allegedly shooting and dismembering his father, before hiding his remains.
Chandler Halderson reported his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson, missing last week, but was arrested a day later for providing false information to police, investigators said.
Human remains belonging to Bart Halderson, 50, have since been found.
Authorities confirmed the son is now being held on new tentative charges: mutilating and hiding a corpse and first-degree intentional homicide.
Krista Halderson, 53, is still missing.
The new accusations, listed on the Dane County Jail’s inmate roster, came as the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office released a statement following an autopsy of the remains. It revealed that Bart died from “homicidal violence including firearm injury.”
The Dane County District Attorney’s office have not yet brought formal charges against Chandler Halderson in the death of his father. However, according to a probable cause statement released by the county, witnesses placed Chandler at an acquaintance’s address in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, on July 5, when he was seen “reversing his vehicle with the rear hatch open in a field near a wooded area.” A human torso identified as Bart was found nearby.
The suspect told police his parents had spent July Fourth weekend at their cabin in White Lake, Langlade County, with an unknown couple, and they never returned. But when authorities searched the lake house, they found no evidence that anyone had been there.
“Halderson reported that his parents, Krista and Bart Halderson, were picked up by an unknown acquaintance in the early hours of July 1, 2021, to travel to the family’s cabin in White Lake, Wisconsin,” the probable cause statement said. “Halderson reported that his mother Krista had sent him a text message on July 4, 2021, stating that they had arrived and were in White Lake, and were planning on attending a parade that day. Investigation revealed that where was no parade and that Krista and Bart Halderson did not travel to their cabin in White Lake.”
Once investigators discovered Bart Halderson’s remains, Chandler Halderson was arrested.
“Chandler Halderson did know that his parents didn’t travel to the cabin, and intentionally made false statements to law enforcement regarding his parent’s whereabouts,” the statement concluded.
(NEW YORK) — “Sicker, younger, quicker” is how hospital executive Steve Edwards explained a sudden explosion this month in COVID patients in Springfield, Missouri.
It’s against this backdrop — rising COVID cases due to an aggressive new variant and lagging vaccination numbers — that the nation’s estimated 56 million students grades K-12 return to the classroom full-time in the coming weeks, many of them for the first time since the pandemic shuttered schools in March 2020.
Here’s what to know about schools reopening:
Only of a quarter of children ages 12-15 are fully immunized
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lowered the age of people eligible to receive the vaccine from 16 to 12 in May, citing evidence from clinical trials that the two doses were safe and effective in kids in preventing the symptoms caused by COVID-19. Studies also have shown that vaccination prevents the chances a teen could spread the virus.
But U.S. teens have been slow on the uptake.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 86% of people over age 75 are fully vaccinated. That’s compared to nearly 25% of children ages 12-15 and 37% of young people 16-17 who are fully vaccinated.
That leaves large populations of high schools and middle schools — which are often overcrowded, making social distancing difficult — unprotected against the virus, particularly as daily COVID cases have jumped 86% in the last three weeks.
For younger children, ages 5-11, Pfizer said its clinical trials are under way now to see if a smaller dose of the vaccine would be as effective. Company officials said they plan to seek authorization for kids younger than 12 in September or October, paving the way for elementary-age children to be fully immunized by the end of the year.
Several states are prohibiting schools from requiring masks
Last year, schools were found not to be super-spreaders so long as students and staff consistently wore masks and took other steps to prevent transmission.
The CDC now says vaccinated students and staff can forgo masks unless they are riding a school bus or if their school tells them otherwise. But verifying who is vaccinated will be up to schools and local officials — and many states don’t appear to be eager to mandate proof of vaccination.
According to the school tracker Burbio, seven states are prohibiting schools from mandating masks. Schools in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Vermont and South Carolina can only recommend masks to unvaccinated staff and students.
In Arizona, Chandler Unified School District, which welcomes back students July 21 — one of the earliest start dates in the nation — already decided masks would be voluntary when Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law that prohibits local counties and school districts from requiring students or staff to wear face coverings.
In most states though, including Missouri, school districts have the option of requiring masks come fall — a decision that could change as COVID case numbers fluctuate.
In Springfield, Missouri, for example, the city had lifted the mask mandate in schools only to reinstate it for its July summer program when COVID case numbers climbed. The superintendent there has yet to say whether masks will be required when the district reopens full-time on Aug. 23, welcoming back more than 23,000 students into its classrooms.
Biden designated $10B for testing in schools, but not every state wants it
President Joe Biden has designated $10 billion in federal money as part of his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan so schools can test students and staff. Under the program, states are required to report back how many tests are used and how many turn up positive.
Several of the nation’s largest school districts — Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago — plan to reopen with routine surveillance testing for students. Colorado’s health department also announced it wants to use federal dollars to implement a routine testing program.
But other parts of the country — including Idaho and Iowa — plan to forgo entirely their share of federal funding to test students for COVID-19.
Last April, Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that she would reject the $95 million in federal funds offered to the state for in-school coronavirus testing.
“I think he (Biden) thinks that COVID just started,” Reynolds said in a Fox News interview. “I just returned $95 million because they sent an additional $95 million to the state of Iowa to get our kids back in the classroom by doing surveillance testing. And I said we’ve been in the classroom since August. Here’s your $95 million back.”
The CDC and Biden’s top health officials are still suggesting schools embrace the idea of routine testing, particularly if they want schools to stay open.
“Our nation’s top public health scientists are recommending that school districts consider adding screening programs into their overall strategy for protecting their kids and their staff from outbreaks of COVID and the administration is supporting that recommendation with this testing program,” said Tom Inglesby, a senior COVID-19 response adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — Nearly two dozen 911 calls released by the Miami-Dade Police Department Wednesday convey the confusion, panic and disbelief among residents and neighbors after the partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, Florida, in the early hours of June 24.
“I’m in the Champlain Towers, something is going on here. You gotta get us out of here.”
“It seemed like there was an earthquake.”
“Oh my God, the whole building collapsed.”
Frantic 911 calls came in from residents who were trapped inside after approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed in the collapse at around 1:15 a.m.
“Half the building’s gone!” a panicked woman told the operator from her apartment.
A woman calling from the second floor told the operator that she couldn’t find an exit.
“We didn’t know which stairs we can get out,” she said.
A man on the same call told the operator he heard people yelling from the collapsed portion of the building.
“There’s people yelling, saying that they’re stuck,” he said.
“Is it safe for us to stay here?” he later asked.
The operator stayed with him on the phone as he and his family went down to the basement looking for a way out.
“The entire garage is flooded,” he said, updating the operator that they were going to try to go back to the second floor and that other people had joined his family.
“There are people in the rubble yelling, by the way,” he later said, softly.
One person called 911 from the flooded garage.
“A bunch of us are in the garage but we cannot get out,” the caller said. “We’re going back up the stairwell, the garage is inundated with water. We don’t know where the water is coming from.”
A distressed woman called from outside the parking garage asking to be rescued.
“Can somebody help me get out?” she asked. “I was able to escape but I’m in the parking lot. If the building comes down it will come down on my head.”
Other calls came in from family members of those who lived in the condo begging for help.
“My sister lives there,” one person said. “I don’t know, something happened to it. I don’t know, half of the building isn’t there anymore. She is alive and she is there, she’s in apartment [muted]. If someone can get her out through the balcony.”
Witnesses who heard the collapse and saw the aftermath also called 911.
“What are you seeing sir because we are getting a lot of calls over there?” an overwhelmed operator asked in one call.
“A very large building collapse, like the building next to us is gone,” the caller replied.
Another caller a block and a half away reported hearing an explosion.
Others reported seeing smoke and flames following the collapse.
“A building collapsed a block away from me and there is major smoke everywhere. We don’t know if anybody is hurt,” a caller said. “I heard the explosion all the way and the building is collapsing.”
Several callers described hearing what sounded like an earthquake, as well as an explosion from the garage.
“I woke up because I was hearing some noise,” one caller said. “I looked outside and the patio area started sinking down.”
“The building just went into the sinkhole,” the caller said a few seconds later. “There will be many, many people dead.”
The full toll of the disaster still remains to be seen; after nearly three weeks of search efforts, at least 95 people have been confirmed dead, while 14 people remain unaccounted for, officials said Tuesday. The cause of the partial collapse is under investigation.
Documents released by the city of Surfside show there was structural damage to the concrete slabs on the condo building’s pool deck and failed waterproofing in parts of the tower, and that the pool deck and the ceiling of the underground parking garage beneath it had needed repairs as early as 1996.
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A judge has delayed the sentencing of a man convicted of murdering University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts after defense attorneys filed court documents accusing prosecutors of failing to disclose that police were investigating a sex trafficking “trap house” involving a man linked to a missing 11-year-old boy.
Instead of sentencing Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, Judge Joel Yates will hold a hearing on Thursday on a defense motion to set aside the verdict and schedule a new trial.
A jury convicted Bahena Rivera, a 27-year-old Mexican national farmworker, in May of first-degree murder in the 2018 abduction and killing of the 20-year-old student.
On Tuesday, Bahena Rivera’s attorneys filed a motion, alleging prosecutors failed to disclose a separate investigation was occurring at the time of Tibbetts’ disappearance involving a man allegedly operating a sex trafficking “trap house” in New Sharon, Iowa, 27 miles from Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts went missing on July 18, 2018.
The 50-year-old man the defense attorneys identified by name in their motion was once the live-in boyfriend of the mother of 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson, who vanished from a rural Iowa trailer park on May 27, a day before the jury found Bahena Rivera guilty.
The motion also claimed that an investigation by the defense found that, in the past few years, at least 10 children have been reported missing in or near Poweshiek County, Iowa, the same county where Tibbetts was stabbed to death and dumped in a cornfield.
The defense attorneys filed court papers last week asking for a new trial based on information from two witnesses who came forward to law enforcement in May saying they independently spoke to a man who claimed he and a 50-year-old sex trafficker killed Tibbetts and framed Bahena Rivera.
One of the new witnesses purportedly claimed the real killer — who was in jail with the witness at the time — told him that he first saw Tibbetts bound and gagged at a sex trafficking “trap house” owned by his alleged accomplice. The man claimed, according to the defense motion, his alleged accomplice grew worried after federal authorities searching for Tibbetts showed up at a house next door to his.
“That Mexican shouldn’t be in jail for killing Mollie Tibbett, because I raped her and killed her,” the witness claimed the confessed killer told him, according to the earlier defense motion.
In their motion filed Tuesday, defense attorneys attached a police search warrant affidavit for the New Sharon home that they say “corroborates the ‘trap house’ account.”
A second individual contacted the Mahaska County, Iowa, Sheriff’s Office with a similar story involving the same man who reportedly confessed, but deputies said the witness appeared to be under the influence at the time and dismissed the story as not being credible.
Both witnesses contacted investigators within hours of each other on May 26, the same day Bahena Rivera testified at his trial that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to drive them to where Tibbetts was expected to be jogging. He claimed that when they found Tibbetts, one of the men stabbed her to death, put her body in the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s car and made him drive to a cornfield, where the young woman’s badly decomposed remains were discovered a month after she went missing.
Bahena Rivera admitted on the witness stand that he placed Tibbetts’ body in the cornfield but was not involved in her murder. Bahena Rivera claimed during his testimony that he didn’t tell investigators about the masked men because they threatened to harm his former girlfriend, the mother of his daughter, if he did.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Scott Brown called Bahena Rivera’s testimony a “figment of his imagination.” A jury deliberated seven hours over two days before finding Bahena Rivera guilty.
Following the verdict, prosecutors informed the defense attorneys that the two witnesses had come forward.
The defense motion filed Tuesday argued that Bahena Rivera’s “claim based on newly discovered evidence has turned into a due process violation arising from the prosecution’s failure to turn over reports involving trap houses and kidnappings in or near the Poweshiek County area.”
Prosecutors from the Iowa State Attorney General’s Office have yet to comment on the new developments but are expected to file a response to the defense motion for a new trial on Wednesday.
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — An arrest has been made in the slaying of a Houston mom who was shot and killed while in Maryland to drop off her son at the U.S. Naval Academy, authorities announced Wednesday.
Angelo Harrod, 29, allegedly shot Michelle Cummings, 57, while she sat on an Annapolis hotel patio in the early hours of June 29, according to Annapolis police.
Harrod was confined to home detention on May 3 and allegedly cut off his ankle bracelet before the shooting, Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson said at a news conference Wednesday.
A warrant had been out for Harrod for absconding home detection and authorities had been looking for him, Jackson said.
Harrod was identified as a suspect in the Cummings case after police reviewed videos and photos from the crime scene, according to the chief.
“The minute we knew he was wanted … we were looking for him and we just happened to find him on June 30,” Jackson said.
Cummings was not the intended target of the shooting, police said. The shots were fired on Pleasant Street and traveled a short distance, hitting Cummings, police said.
Charges filed Wednesday against Harrod include first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder.
The attempted murder charges are because the suspect allegedly attempted “to murder two other citizens that night on Pleasant Street,” the chief said.
Harrod is being held without bond, Jackson added.
Cummings and her husband were in Annapolis at the time of her slaying to bring their son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard Cummings III, to the U.S. Naval Academy. Their son, who goes by Trey, is an incoming freshman for the Naval Academy Class of 2025, the Academy said.
Jackson said he was desperate to solve this case.
“Some nights I couldn’t sleep. I felt rage,” he said.
Jackson said he called Cummings’ husband Wednesday morning with the news. Jackson said her husband “paused,” and then said, “Thank you, chief.”
Naval Academy Superintendent Sean Buck said at the news conference, “When Trey is ready … we will welcome him back with open arms.”
(FORT HOOD, Texas) — A woman accused of helping Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen’s suspected killer dismember and dispose of Guillen’s body last year has been indicted by a grand jury.
Cecily Ann Aguilar was indicted Tuesday on 11 federal charges including accessory after the fact, destruction of records in a federal case, conspiracy to tamper with documents, tampering with documents and issuing false statements in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The charges come one month after a Texas judge denied a motion from Aguilar asking her confession in the crime be thrown out.
Guillen was a Fort Hood Army specialist who disappeared in April 2020. Her remains were found along the Leon River in late June that year.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas said Guillen was bludgeoned to death with a hammer by fellow soldier Aaron David Robinson in the arms room of the Killeen, Texas, military base, according to the criminal complaint. He later died by suicide in July when confronted by police after Guillen’s remains were found.
Aguilar was his girlfriend at the time, according to the criminal complaint, and was taken into custody. In July 2020, she was charged with one federal count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
The Tuesday indictment stated Aguilar “did unlawfully and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with another person to corruptly alter, destroy, mutilate, and conceal any record, document and other object,” such as Guillen’s body, “with the intent to impair its integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding.”
The documents stated she and Robinson dismembered Guillen’s body, destroyed some of it and concealed what was left of her remains. They further said she made false statements “to prevent” Robinson and herself “from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime.”
Lawyers for Aguilar did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Natalie Khawam, the attorney for Guillen’s family, told ABC News they are hoping for a “maximum sentence” for Aguilar.
“My clients, the Guillen family, and I believe that Cecily Aguilar is guilty. When the U.S. Attorney called me yesterday to tell us the news, we felt some relief knowing that justice is underway,” Khawam said. “We pray that this trial does not drag on but rather is put on a speedy trial calendar so that justice is not delayed. Vanessa was brutally murdered, in a way no one should ever be taken from this Earth.”
Ty O’Neil/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The already devastating wildfire conditions in the West are expected to worsen Wednesday as the region sees an increase of gusty, dry winds — which is fuel for fire.
More than 60 wildfires are burning across the West. Red flag warnings and heat advisories have been issued in Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Wildfire season has only just begun, but there are already 14,000 firefighters on the front lines.
In the Pacific Northwest, the Wednesday forecast shows winds gusting up to 35 mph, temperatures soaring near 105 degrees and relative humidity falling to 7%.
The Bootleg Fire in Klamath County, Oregon, is currently the nation’s largest wildfire, clocking in at over 200,000 acres, ABC Portland affiliate KATU reported.
In Nespelem, Washington, all residents were evacuated as a wildfire caused by lightning raced across town, The Spokesman-Review reported.
In Madera County, California, local authorities have declared a state of emergency as the River Fire ravages the area. The blaze has covered 9,500 acres and is 15% contained, according to Cal Fire.
“The extreme heat and winds have proven to be challenging for not only fire personnel, but those working to support those efforts,” Sheriff Tyson Pogue said Tuesday. “This proclamation will provide much needed resources to support our community.”
The massive fires have sent smoke halfway across the country, reaching as far as the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes. Air quality alerts have been issued from Colorado to Minnesota.
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — A series of construction permit records, letters and other documents from more than two decades ago show that Champlain Towers South was in need of waterproofing and structural repairs in the parking garage just 15 years after the original construction of the building.
The documents released by the Town of Surfside, Florida, on Tuesday show that the pool deck of the Surfside condo building that collapsed last month and the ceiling of the underground parking garage beneath it had needed repairs as early as 1996.
“The scope of work will be concrete structural repair in the parking garage,” wrote Rob Sommer, sales manager for Western Waterproofing Company of America to the Surfside Building Department in March 1996. “This type of repair entails removing loose concrete overhead, treating steel rebar with rust inhibitive coating and patching back with repair mortar. Also included in the garage will be urethane foam injection in ceiling cracks.”
Tong Le, the project engineer contracted for the repair work, estimated the project to cost roughly $156,600.
Later in November 1997, Le wrote to Surfside’s Building Department that the deck was waterproofed and that approximately 20 square-foot of spalls in the ceiling of the garage had been repaired. Le wrote that the “repair of the spallings has been done in compliance with the approved” regulations.
Le did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News previously reported that a 2018 Structural Field Survey report released by the city of Surfside found “major structural damage” to concrete structural slabs on the pool deck and failed waterproofing in parts of the tower.
In his report, engineer Frank Morabito said previous repair work in the garage had been “ineffective.”
Allyn Kilsheimer, an engineer hired by the Town of Surfside to investigate the collapse of the building, cautioned against directly linking the repair work from 1996 and the deficiencies cited in Morabito’s report, telling ABC News that it’s not yet known if they were referring to the same specific areas.
Engineering experts offered differing views on how concerning the repair work from 1996 was and how it could have contributed to the building collapse.
“It is not normal,” said Joel Figueroa-Vallines, an Orlando-based forensic structural engineer and president of SEP Engineers, of the documents. “Generally, the life of a structure is much longer than that. Life cycles of concrete structures can be over 50 years, so this is very concerning.”
Figueroa-Vallines told ABC News that cracking can reveal structural issues and added that whenever there is cracking on concrete, “there is stress where it shouldn’t be.”
“..The fact that there were a lot of cracks on a structural slab, that tells me that something was going on in that pool area,” said Figueroa-Vallines. “On top of the fact that the pool area is the highest loaded area of the whole building.”
Meanwhile, Kilsheimer said the damages and repairs described in the 1996 permit documents are “normal” and “expected,” especially in Surfside’s environment, where buildings are prone to heavier corrosion from the adjacent seawater.
Shankar Nair, a Chicago-based engineering expert, told ABC News that the deficiencies and repair work cited in the 1996 permit documents are “not common” but also “not extremely rare.”
“This type of concrete deterioration does not usually lead to sudden catastrophic collapse, but there is a lot about this collapse that is unusual, if not unique.”
Crews are continuing their recovery efforts after the remaining parts of the partially collapsed building were demolished last week.
So far there are at least 95 confirmed deaths from the collapse. As of Tuesday morning, 85 of those 95 victims have been identified. There are still 14 people potentially unaccounted for, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Cava said at a press conference Tuesday.
