Accused Michigan school shooter must stay in adult jail, but can resume education

Accused Michigan school shooter must stay in adult jail, but can resume education
Accused Michigan school shooter must stay in adult jail, but can resume education
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office

(OXFORD, Mich.) — The 15-year-old boy charged with multiple counts of murder stemming from a November mass shooting at Michigan’s Oxford High School must remain in an adult jail, a judge ordered Thursday as the teen’s court-appointed guardian said it’s now up to the jail to provide him an education.

During a hearing held on Zoom, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe maintained his prior order that Ethan Crumbley is not to be transferred at this juncture to a juvenile facility.

“The court has not been presented with additional information or new information that will cause this court to disrupt its March 1, 2022 opinion and order. Therefore, the court will continue the defendant’s placement at the Oakland County Jail,” Rowe said.

Crumbley’s lawyer, Paulette Michel Loftin, informed Rowe that a psychiatric evaluation of the teenager has been completed and that a written report of the results is expected to be available in 45 days. Crumbley’s lawyers said in January that they plan to mount an insanity defense.

The boy is charged as an adult with 24 counts, including four counts of murder and a terrorism charge. He is being held in isolation at the Oakland County Jail under behavior watch, which is one step below suicide watch, and must be checked on every 15 minutes, officials said.

Officials said at a previous hearing that Crumbley is only released from his cell to shower or speak with visitors and his attorneys. He spends most of his time reading Harry Potter books, officials said.

Deborah H. McKelvy, Crumbley’s court-appointed guardian, raised concerns Thursday over prosecutors continuing to say in court filings that it’s the responsibility of the defendant’s parents to provide him an education.

Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are both jailed on charges stemming from the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting their son allegedly committed at Oxford High School in the Detroit suburb of Oxford Township. The parents are charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly neglecting or failing to notice warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting. They also allegedly bought their son a 9-mm Sig Sauer pistol as a present just days before he allegedly used it in the shooting.

Six other students and a teacher were injured in the shooting.

McKelvy, citing a Michigan statute, told Rowe “it’s important to keep in perspective” that it’s now the jail’s responsibility to provide Ethan Crumbley with an education.

“It’s no longer the parents’ responsibility,” McKelvy said.

McKelvy said she received an email on Tuesday from a senior assistant at the Corporation Counsel for Oakland County notifying Crumbley of the educational programs available to him in jail.

“He (Crumbley) is thinking about what path he wants to proceed with,” McKelvy said.

She said one option is through a cyber school and the other is through a program offered by the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, in which Crumbley could study for his high school equivalency exam or his GED with a laptop computer provided by the jail.

“Once he has achieved either the high school equivalency diploma or the GED, he then would be able to continue in that program to be able to do some community college courses,” McKelvy said.

Ven Johnson, a Detroit civil attorney who represents the parents of Tate Myre, one of four students Crumbley allegedly shot to death, agreed that under state statute, Oakland County must provide Crumbley an education until he’s 18.

“The parents can’t provide an education, imagine that,” Johnson told ABC News Thursday.

He said Myre’s parents, William and Sheri Myre, had no comment on the decision over Crumbley’s education, adding: “They’re too smart to get involved in that.”

Judge Rowe set Crumbley’s next hearing for April 21, for a required monthly reevaluation of whether he should stay in jail or be transferred to a juvenile facility.

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US says it will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

US says it will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
US says it will accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
Ukrainians Anatoli Boreiko, 64, and his wife, 59-year-old Natalia, recently arrived in New Jersey to stay with their daughter and son-in-law, Luda Boreiko and Yeugeniy Pakkel. – (WPVI)

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce that the U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, according to a senior administration official.

“To meet this commitment, we are considering the full range of legal pathways to the United States and that includes U.S. refugee admissions program, parole and immigrant and non-immigrant visas,” the official told reporters.

The official also said the commitment to take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees was not tied to any particular time frame.

The official reiterated that the administration still believed the majority of refugees would prefer to stay in neighboring countries or elsewhere in the European Union.

Eastern European cities and countries have become overwhelmed with refugees. A senior administration official told ABC News last week that the U.S. refugee program “is not an emergency response program, so our goal would be to provide humanitarian assistance to keep people safe where they are for now.”

The process for refugees to stay in the U.S. is complex. Vetting it required as well as a referral from a United Nations agency. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration is “looking at steps that we can take in the near term.”

The White House did not announce specifics on how it will process these refugees. Administration officials said specifics will be announced “in the coming weeks.”

The refugee resettlement process can also take years. In February, the U.S. admitted 427 Ukrainian refugees out of 2,133 refugees in total, according to Department of State data.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million refugees have fled the country, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. The majority of the refugees have fled to nearby countries, with more than 2 million people crossing into Poland.

U.S. embassies and consulates in the region are processing emergency visa applications but are overwhelmed.

“We are not able to process the volume of the people who are thinking about that as an option,” a senior administration official said last week.

According to U.S. law, immigrant visas only apply to immediate family — meaning spouses, unmarried children under 21 and parents. Family not in that category can submit a petition to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve their case.

Biden on Thursday will announce more than $1 billion in new funding for humanitarian assistance for those affected by Russia’s war.  “This funding will be additional to money that we have already provided and will provide food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance,” a senior administration official told reporters.  The U.S. will also provide $11 billion over the next five years to address food security threats and malnutrition across the world. This will be done through the Feed the Future initiative.

ABC News’ Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.

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Supreme Court endorses pastor’s laying on of hands at moment of inmate’s execution

Supreme Court endorses pastor’s laying on of hands at moment of inmate’s execution
Supreme Court endorses pastor’s laying on of hands at moment of inmate’s execution
Catherine McQueen/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, in an 8-1 decision, has endorsed a pastor’s audible prayer and laying of hands on an inmate at the moment of his execution, siding with a Texas death-row prisoner who challenged the state’s ban on the practice during lethal injection.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter.

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

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Where anti-critical race theory efforts have reached

Where anti-critical race theory efforts have reached
Where anti-critical race theory efforts have reached
GlobalStock/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Since 2020, legislation on race education has popped up across the country. A total of 35 states so far have signed into law or proposed legislation banning or restricting the teaching of critical race theory, the academic discipline at the center of the debate.

Critical race theory, mostly taught in universities and colleges, seeks to understand how racism has shaped U.S. laws.

Many legislators have been invoking critical race theory broadly in their attempts to restrict discussions of race in the classroom and in government agency diversity training.

These Republican-led efforts have continued to move forward in many states across the country. However, in some states, the bills have fallen short.

A total of 16 states so far have signed into law bills restricting education on race in classrooms or state agencies.

There are currently 19 states that are considering bills or policies that restrict race education in schools or state agencies.

Six states failed to pass this type of legislation.

Eight states have yet to introduce any legislation on this topic.

Officials who back these bills argue that educators are indoctrinating students with certain lessons on race that make people feel “discomfort” or “shame.”

“We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has introduced restrictions on diversity education for schools as well as private corporations.

He continued, “Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

Educators and some parents argue these bills would censor teachers and students, as well as place restrictions on discussions on racial oppression.

Proponents of critical race theory say that some opponents are portraying “critical race theory” as something harmful to reverse progress made in diversity and racial equity.

“There’s long-term resentment against people of color speaking up for civil rights,” Justin Hansford, a law professor at Howard University, told ABC News. “If you don’t see race, that doesn’t really help anybody. It’s ignoring the truth.”

Lawsuits against anti-CRT laws have already popped up in two of the states that passed them, Oklahoma and New Hampshire.

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Family of man killed by sheriff’s deputy say he was in mental health crisis

Family of man killed by sheriff’s deputy say he was in mental health crisis
Family of man killed by sheriff’s deputy say he was in mental health crisis
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

(COLUMBIA, South Carolina) — A man’s family is speaking out after he was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer in Columbia, South Carolina.

Irvin D. Moorer Charley, 34, whose family said he had various mental illnesses, was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy after police responded to a domestic violence call.

“The officer was very aware of my son’s condition,” Moorer Charley’s mother, Connie Craig, told reporters at a press conference. “They had been to the home many times, several times.”

While Moorer Charley’s family said he was having a mental health episode, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said the 911 call did not identify Moorer Charley as a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

“I tried to tell them that I’ve been dealing with him for a long time, and I probably could have gotten him to stop,” Craig said. “They said ‘Get back.’ I begged them. I begged them not to do that to him. I couldn’t do any more, and I dropped to the ground, but my son didn’t deserve this. He did not deserve this.”

The sheriff’s department released part of a dash cam video Tuesday in efforts to be “completely transparent with the community” and to provide “clarity to misstatements that this was a mental health call for service.”

In the released clip, the deputy who shot Moorer Charley is seen yelling at him multiple times, saying, “drop the weapon,” as Moorer Charley approached officers while holding a sharp wooden object. A second officer tried to use a stun gun on Moorer Charley, but according to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford, it was ineffective.

“It did not stick in the skin, and so it did not stop him as you would expect,” Rutherford told reporters at a press conference Sunday.

After the stun gun was deployed, officers said Moorer Charley charged at them, and one of the officers shot him.

The department defended the incident at the press conference.

“We can’t expect these deputies to go out here and be killed,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters. “They have to protect themselves.”

While some of the body cam video has been released, Moorer Charley’s family is calling on the department to release the video in its entirety.

“We are just calling for transparency and for actions to be taken not only in South Carolina but across the country to address these tragic and preventable mental health deaths,” Brendan Green, who is representing Moorer Charley’s family, told reporters.

Lott said that while he believes the officers’ actions were justified, “It’s sad all around,” he said.

“Mental health is a problem in our community,” the sheriff said. “We do not need to continue to ignore it. When someone cries out for help, they need to get help.”

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Jeffrey Epstein’s private US Virgin Islands locations up for sale

Jeffrey Epstein’s private US Virgin Islands locations up for sale
Jeffrey Epstein’s private US Virgin Islands locations up for sale
Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The executors of the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have listed for sale the two private Caribbean islands the late financier owned off the east coast of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, an attorney for the estate told ABC News on Wednesday.

The asking price: $125 million, according to two sources.

Epstein purchased the private island, Little St. James, in 1998 for about $8 million and established his permanent residence there in 2010, around the time he was released from his first jail sentence in Palm Beach, Florida. He liked to refer to his estate there as “Little St. Jeff’s,” according to testimony that emerged last year during the criminal trial of his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein later acquired ownership of a larger, neighboring island, Great St. James, and he was in the process of building a new estate there at the time of his arrest in 2019, according to court and property records in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Wall St. Journal first reported news of the listing.

The islands are currently encumbered by “criminal activity” liens placed by Denise George, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ attorney general, who in early 2020 filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the estate. The suit alleges that Epstein created a network of shell companies, charitable organizations and individuals that participated in and conspired with him in a decadeslong pattern of criminal activity tied to alleged sex trafficking of minor girls and young women.

“Epstein, through and in association with defendants, trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive underage girls and young women at his properties in the Virgin Islands,” the complaint said.

ABC News reported earlier this month that lawyers for the Epstein estate are in settlement talks with the U.S. Virgin Island government. One estate attorney described the two sides as being “extraordinarily close” to reaching a negotiated resolution.

A lawyer for the estate, Daniel Weiner, confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that the properties have been listed for sale. The proceeds of any sale, Weiner said, would be used by the estate “for the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the Estate’s operations, and will be subject to potential claims by tax authorities, creditors, and other parties.”

The proceeds will be held in liened accounts, Weiner said, pending the resolution of the government’s lawsuit

The estate has previously unloaded two of Epstein’s other properties, his Palm Beach Island seaside home and his Upper East Side Manhattan townhouse. Two other properties, Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and an Avenue Foch apartment in Paris, are also for sale.

The marketing of the islands is being handled by New York firms The Modlin Group and Bespoke Real Estate in partnership with U.S. Virgin Islands-based Christie’s International Real Estate The Saints, Weiner said.

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Kenosha officer accused of kneeling on girl’s neck resigns from school district

Kenosha officer accused of kneeling on girl’s neck resigns from school district
Kenosha officer accused of kneeling on girl’s neck resigns from school district
amphotora/Getty Images

(KENOSHA, Wis.) — A police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, resigned from his off-duty role at the local school district amid an investigation into the tactics he used to restrain a young girl while stopping a fight in which she was involved.

Officer Shawn Guetschow, who was working part-time as a security officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, came under fire after a viral video appeared to show him putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl at Lincoln Middle School on March 4, while trying to stop a fight.

Guetschow resigned from his role with the school district on March 15, Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, confirmed to ABC News.

Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that Guetschow is still employed by the police department and is currently on desk duty amid the investigation.

In his resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, Guetschow cited the “mental and emotional strain” that the public attention surrounding the incident has brought on his family, as well as what he says is “the lack of communication and or support” that he has received from the district.

The incident was the subject of a heated discussion at the school board meeting on Tuesday, with some community members calling for the district to suspend its contract with the Kenosha Police Department, while others argued that police officers are needed in school to keep students safe.

The 12-year-old girl’s father, Jerrel Perez, spoke out against the officer’s tactics in a press conference last week and called for criminal charges to be filed against him.

“She’s humiliated. She’s traumatized. Every day I gotta hear, ‘Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school,'” Perez said Wednesday.

“It breaks me, because I wasn’t there to help her,” he added. “I felt helpless.”

A charge of disorderly conduct was referred to juvenile court for both students involved in the fight, police told ABC News.

Attorney Drew DeVinney, who represents the girl and her father, said during a press conference Wednesday that the family plans to take legal action against the police and the school soon.

Ruder told ABC News that the Kenosha Unified School District could not provide any more information.

“As it appears that this incident may lead to litigation, the district will provide no further details at this time,” she said.

A video of the incident taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a fight between two students during lunch time in the cafeteria.

The 12-year-old girl, whose name has not been revealed as she is a minor, pushes the officer, and then he pins her to the ground amid shouting from students who have gathered to watch.

The clip is 10 seconds long, and it is unclear what happened before or after.

“We continue our investigation, paying careful attention to the entire scope of the incident. We have no further update at this time,” the Kenosha Police Department said in a statement Saturday.

Last week, the Kenosha Unified School District released a redacted version of school surveillance video of the incident.

In the video, Guetschow pushes the girl’s head to the ground and then appears to kneel on her neck for over 20 seconds.

Perez expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics and compared the image to George Floyd, the Minnesota man who was killed when a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Amid a push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life-threatening situations or in situations where police officers have to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various police neck restraints.

DeVinney told ABC News earlier this month that the girl “suffered injuries to her head and neck and is currently receiving medical treatment.”

He said that since chokeholds have been banned in Wisconsin, the “incident should never have occurred.”

“The family hopes to find out why this happened, so that it does not happen again to anyone else’s child,” he added.

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Arrest made in mass shooting at Arkansas car show that killed 1, injured 26

Arrest made in mass shooting at Arkansas car show that killed 1, injured 26
Arrest made in mass shooting at Arkansas car show that killed 1, injured 26
Courtesy of Amber R. Taylor

(DUMAS, Arkansas) — A man was arrested in connection with a mass shooting at an Arkansas car show that left more than two dozen people injured and one dead.

Brandon Deandra Knight, 22, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was arrested after being released from the hospital Wednesday morning, state police said. It was unclear why he was hospitalized.

He was charged with first-degree battery and aggravated assault, police said. He is being held at the Dumas City Jail and will make his first court appearance Thursday. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

“The state police investigation remains in an active status and no further information regarding the arrest is available at this hour,” the Arkansas State Police, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said in a statement.

The incident occurred Saturday evening in a parking lot in Dumas, about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock, when gunfire “swept across a crowd attending a local car show,” state police said.

Arkansas State Police, in addition to other state and county authorities, soon arrived at the scene, and first responders transported the injured to five different Arkansas hospitals.

Twenty-six people were wounded by gunfire, including five children ranging in age from 19 months to 11 years old, state police said. Additionally, one person, identified by police as 23-year-old Cameron Shaffer of Jacksonville, died at the Dumas hospital.

Police initially said 28 people were shot in the incident, including the fatality, though later amended that number to 27.

Authorities said earlier this week they believed that two people were involved in a gunfight, and that a mass shooting was not intended. There was no prior intelligence that violence was to take place at the car show before the shooting took place, authorities said.

There is no indication that Shaffer was involved in the gunfight, state police said.

Earlier this week, authorities indicated they were looking for two suspects in the shooting and have been urging anyone with information about the events leading up to the shooting to come forward.

The Dumas Police Department arrested one person who left the scene and fit the description of one of the suspects on “unrelated charges,” Col. Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police said during a press briefing Sunday.

“It’s shocking,” he told reporters. “We have a small community, a farming community in Dumas — 5,000 people. And then we have an incident of multi victims. It’s just, you don’t expect that from small-town Arkansas.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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More than 60 tornadoes tear through 5 states in 2 days

More than 60 tornadoes tear through 5 states in 2 days
More than 60 tornadoes tear through 5 states in 2 days
Piccell/Getty Images

(NEW ORLEANS) — A deadly tornado tore through homes and knocked out power in the New Orleans area on Tuesday night, killing one person and injuring multiple others, authorities said.

The twister was one of more than 60 tornadoes reported in five southeastern states in two days, officials said.

A funnel cloud caused damage in St. Bernard’s Parish, in the eastern part of New Orleans, including the Ninth Ward, Chalmette and Arabi areas of the parish. It hit at around 7:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

One person was killed in Arabi, St. Bernard’s Parish President Guy McInnis told ABC News.

“It’s pretty bad. We have about a two-mile stretch of where this tornado tore through our community,” McInnis said in an interview Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”

McInnis said that in addition to one death in Arabi, seven other people in the community were hospitalized with injuries. He called it a “miracle” that more people weren’t killed or injured given the swath of destruction.

“We have houses that were lifted up and now they sit in the middle of the street,” McInnis said. “We have, you know, houses in an area that are totally leveled.”

The National Weather Service said it is surveying the damage in St. Benard’s Parish and that a preliminary review of the destruction indicates the tornado that hit the area was at least an EF-3, the third strongest twister on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. EF-3 tornadoes usually pack winds of more than 130 mph.

McInnis said rescue crews searched the hard-hit areas overnight and again on Wednesday.

“We have no reports of anyone missing at this time and no one trapped in homes,” McInnis said.

Raymond Theriot, chief investigator of the St. Bernard Parish Coroner’s Office, confirmed to ABC News that Connor Lambert, 25, died after the tornado hit his home in Arabi. Authorities later found him a block away from his home, and the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma, according to Theriot.

A second suspected tornado touched down in Lacombe in Tammany Parrish, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, according to the National Weather Service. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to homes in Lacombe.

After touring Arabi and St. Bernard Parish on Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards described the damage as “tremendous,” adding that “we can be very thankful that there was only one death.”

Early spring storms churned up tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma one day earlier. A 73-year-old woman was killed while another 10 people were injured in Grayson County, Texas, according to Sarah Somers, the director of the county’s office of emergency.

On Monday and Tuesday, a total of 63 tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma.

The strongest tornado hit Monday night in Jacksboro, Texas, and was rated as a strong EF-3 twister with winds reaching 150 mph, according to the National Weather Service. An EF-2 tornado packing 130 mph winds was confirmed in Sherwood Shores north of Dallas on Monday, according to the weather service.

ABC News’ Matt Foster, Jim Ryan and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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An enormous T. rex skeleton vanished after a mysterious auction. It just turned up

An enormous T. rex skeleton vanished after a mysterious auction. It just turned up
An enormous T. rex skeleton vanished after a mysterious auction. It just turned up
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — It’s extremely rare to find a complete skeleton of a dinosaur.

It’s rarer still that such a skeleton needs to be found twice.

Such is the fate of “Stan” the T. Rex, a massive, mostly complete skeleton of one of the most legendary species of dinosaurs known to Earth.

The enormous fossil was sold in October of 2020 for more than $30 million to an unknown buyer. It subsequently vanished from public view — leaving the paleontological community and dinophiles the world over clamoring for clues as to its whereabouts and fearing its potential loss to science.

National Geographic’s Michael Greshko revealed Wednesday that Stan is bound for a museum in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi — potentially putting to rest widespread concerns that the invaluable fossil would be rendered inaccessible to study.

“Outside scientists’ biggest hopes for Stan hinge on reliable long-term access to this fossil,” Greshko told ABC News. “I know that scientists are hoping for a happy ending, not just for the fossil but for the science that depends on that fossil.”

Stan the T. Rex, an enormous T. Rex skeleton, vanished after being sold at auction two years ago.

Stan’s story begins in the early 1990s, when a nearly 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was unearthed in South Dakota. The skeleton stood at a private institute in the state for two decades before a legal dispute forced its sale.

That auction in 2020 was nearly as eye-popping as Stan itself. The skeleton sold for $31.8 million to an anonymous buyer — making it the most expensive fossil auction ever.

As chronicled by Greshko, the price tag enraged scientists and scholars. They not only feared the fossil would be sealed behind closed doors, but worried its price tag would accelerate the gold rush of fossil privatization, which threatens to remove more and more bones from the realm of research and education.

“This is terrible for science and is a great boost and incentive for commercial outfits to exploit the dinosaur fossils of the American West,” one paleontologist told Greshko of the sale in 2020.

Since then, sleuths have searched for Stan’s whereabouts, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson making perhaps the strangest cameo. A giant T. Rex skull was spotted by the The Rock during a television interview earlier this year, leading to speculation that he’d purchased Stan.

“I am not the mystery buyer,” Johnson later conceded in an Instagram post. “If I was the proud owner of the real STAN, I sure as hell wouldn’t keep him in my office 🤣🦖 I’d keep him in a museum, so the world could enjoy, study and learn from him.”

Greshko spotted a clue in monthly U.S. export totals — specifically an entry for $31,847,500, Stan’s precise price, due for the United Arab Emirates.

“Because Stan is such as high value item and this is such a niche commodity, Stan casts a long financial shadow on these data sets,” Greshko said.

“I was very confident it had been exported to the United Arab Emirates, and then the UAE happened to reach out to me about this museum project … and everything fell into place from there,” he said.

Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi announced Wednesday it will house Stan as part of an ambitious exhibit and research program to chronicle and study the history of life on Earth.

The identity of the anonymous buyer, however, remains unknown. And the effects of Stan’s colossal price could still reverberate throughout the bone hunting world.

“It remains to be seen how Stan’s record-breaking price will affect thee global legal and illegal trade in fossils,” Greshko said. “I know that academic paleontologists around the world are watching that very closely.”

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