(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Friday faced new legal hurdles to its plans to manage a migration crisis as Title 42 pandemic-era border restrictions came to an end Thursday night.
A federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked U.S. Customs and Border Protection from releasing migrants without a formal notice to appear in court.
The parole authority CBP uses to release migrants quickly comes with requirements to report back to authorities, even if no court date has been set.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the ruling by Judge T. Kent Wetherell “very harmful” in an interview Friday morning with ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“This is a harmful ruling and the Department of Justice is considering our options,” Mayorkas said.
Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the new Biden administration restrictions on asylum that are taking effect Friday.
“People fleeing persecution have a legal right to seek asylum, no matter how they reach the border,” litigation chief Melissa Crow with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies said in a statement. “Our asylum system was designed to protect people fleeing imminent threats to their lives, who do not have the luxury of waiting for an elusive appointment or for an application to be adjudicated in a country where they are in danger.”
The new limits on asylum target migrants who cross illegally between federal southwest border check points.
Those non-Mexicans who do not apply for asylum elsewhere will face expedited deportation.
(NEW YORK) — Actress Tori Spelling is sharing a warning with other parents about mold in their home after experiencing a “spiral of sickness” with her own children.
Spelling, who shares five children with her husband Dean McDermott, shared photos on Instagram Wednesday of herself with at least four of her children at an urgent care clinic.
Spelling said in the photos’ caption that she was prompted to look for answers after her kids were in what she described as a months-long “continual spiral of sickness.”
“Used to think… well that’s what happens when you have young kids in school. They just continually bring sicknesses home,” Spelling wrote. “But, when it gets to the point where they are at home sick more than being in school we had to reassess what was going on.”
Spelling wrote that among the symptoms her children have experienced are skin rashes, extreme fatigue, dizziness, fevers and respiratory infections. Her five children range in age from 6 to around 16.
Spelling said a professional mold inspection company found “extreme mold” in the family’s California home, which she said they had been renting.
“It’s hard to just uproot a huge family especially in midst of all feeling so sick and in bed,” she wrote. “But, we now will vacate the home asap.”
How to reduce kids’ exposure to mold at home
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mold can cause health effects ranging from skin rashes and burning eyes to coughing and sneezing and a sore throat.
The effects of mold may be more severe, according to the CDC, for people with asthma and those with mold allergies, as well as people who are immune-compromised and who have chronic lung disease.
Inside a home, mold can enter through everything from heating and air conditioning systems to open doors and windows, vents and even on clothing, shoes and pets, according to the CDC.
When looking for mold in the home, the CDC notes that mold shows up as spots and can be different colors. It also has a musty smell.
Mold may also be hidden, in which case a professional would need to find the source.
Mold growing in the home should be removed immediately, according to the CDC, by using soap and water, a mold-removing product or a bleach solution.
The Environmental Protection Agency has a comprehensive online guide with tips to prevent mold from growing in the first place.
The most important tip is to control moisture inside the house, according to the agency.
The EPA recommends cleaning indoor water leaks and spills quickly, cleaning and repairing roof gutters frequently and keeping the air conditioning system clear and unobstructed so moisture doesn’t accumulate.
In addition, the agency says to keep indoor humidity below 60% relative humidity, which can be measured with a moisture or humidity meter.
Tips for reducing humidity in a home include using a de-humidifier when needed and running exhaust fans or opening windows when showering, cooking and washing dishes, according to the EPA.
(NEW YORK) — Daniel Penny turned himself in to New York City police on Friday to face criminal charges in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train.
Penny was seen walking in to the New York City Police Department’s 5th Precinct in Chinatown shortly after 8 a.m. ET. He did not address the media outside, though his lawyer, Tom Kenniff, spoke briefly to reporters.
“Turned himself in here voluntarily and with the sort of dignity and integrity that is characteristic of his dignity of service to this grateful nation,” Kenniff said. “The case will now go to court we expect an arraignment this afternoon. The process will unfold from there.”
Penny’s surrender came one day after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed that he would be arrested on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.
Neely died following a chokehold on May 1. Video showed Penny, a U.S. Marine veteran, putting Neely in a chokehold following outbursts from Neely on an F train.
Attorneys for Penny said in a statement Thursday night that they are confident that “once all the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are brought to bear, Mr. Penny will be fully absolved of any wrongdoing.”
“When Mr. Penny, a decorated Marine veteran, stepped in to protect himself and his fellow New Yorkers, his well-being was not assured. He risked his own life and safety, for the good of his fellow passengers,” said the statement from the law firm of Raiser and Kenniff. “The unfortunate result was the unintended and unforeseen death of Mr. Neely.”
Neely was homeless at the time of his death. Some witnesses reportedly told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train, authorities said.
Police sources told ABC News that Penny was not specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened and that Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.
In an earlier statement, Penny’s attorneys offered “condolences to those close to Mr. Neely” and claimed “Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel,” and that the Marine veteran and others “acted to protect themselves.”
“Mr. Neely had a documented history of violent and erratic behavior, the apparent result of ongoing and untreated mental illness,” said the statement from the law firm of Raiser and Kenniff. “When Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves, until help arrived. Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely and could not have foreseen his untimely death.”
In footage of the incident, Penny can be seen holding Neely in a chokehold for nearly 3 minutes, as another man held down Neely’s body.
The Neely family attorneys criticized Penny’s response.
“The truth is, he knew nothing about Jordan’s history when he intentionally wrapped his arms around Jordan’s neck, and squeezed and kept squeezing,” the Neely family attorneys said in a statement.
“Daniel Penny’s press release is not an apology nor an expression of regret. It is a character assassination, and a clear example of why he believed he was entitled to take Jordan’s life,” the statement from attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards continued.
The Rev. Al Sharpton in a statement Friday called the charges against Penny “just step one in justice.”
“Let’s not forget that there were three people restraining him, and it is vital that the two others are also held accountable for their actions,” Sharpton said. “The justice system needs to send a clear, loud message that vigilantism has never been acceptable.”
Neely had a documented mental health history, according to police sources. Neely had been previously arrested for several incidents on the subway, though it’s unclear how many, if any, led to convictions.
The Manhattan DA’s office spent the weekend and much of this week interviewing and going over the accounts of witnesses who were on the train, as well as reviewing multiple videos of the incident. Prosecutors also consulted with the medical examiner’s office and detectives, and reviewed statements Penny made to detectives on the night of the incident.
The district attorney’s office decided to move forward with charges without first going to a grand jury.
A grand jury will still hear evidence in the case, which will occur in the week following his arraignment.
The maximum penalty for second-degree manslaughter is 15 years.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(PHILADELPHIA) — One of the two inmates who had escaped the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center has been taken into custody, police said Thursday night.
Nasir Grant was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals, Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore tweeted.
Grant had disguised himself as a woman and was wearing “full female Muslim garb and a head covering” when he was caught, said Robert Clark, Supervisor Deputy Marshal for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Clark said a man resembling Grant left a resident wearing the clothing, which “piqued our interest.” Marshals followed him and arrested him during a felony vehicle stop.
The two men were discovered missing from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center during a headcount Monday afternoon, according to Philadelphia Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney. They had escaped through a hole in the recreation yard’s fence, she said.
They escaped Sunday around 8:30 p.m. and were erroneously considered accounted for during three subsequent headcounts, before being discovered missing during the 3 p.m. Monday headcount, according to Carney.
The commissioner identified the escaped inmates as Ameen Hurst, 18, who was brought to the facility in March 2021 on multiple counts of murder, and Grant, 28, who was being held since September 2022 on charges including criminal conspiracy, narcotics and firearm violations.
Hurst remains at large.
A 21-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly helping the two men escape. Xianni Stalling faces charges including escape, criminal conspiracy and hindering apprehension, authorities said. The U.S. Marshals took Stalling into custody Wednesday and transported her to Philadelphia Police Headquarters for questioning, Robert Clark, supervisory deputy for the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in Philadelphia, said in a statement.
“We are adamant and working tirelessly to get these two dangerous individuals back in custody,” Carney told reporters during a press briefing Monday evening. “We had protocols in place, and those protocols were not followed, so that will be part of our investigation.”
“But the goal here now is to make sure that these two individuals are apprehended promptly and brought back into custody,” she continued.
The Philadelphia Police Department and U.S. Marshal’s Office are involved in the search.
“We are working very quickly to try to get them back,” Vanore told reporters.
Hurst is considered “very dangerous,” Vanore said. The inmate is accused of killing someone in December 2020, fatally shooting two people in March 2021 and, a few days later, fatally shooting a man who had just been discharged from a Philadelphia correctional facility, Vanore said.
Hurst and Grant were housed in the same unit in different cells in the correctional facility and are believed to be together, authorities said.
Blanche said the correctional facility is on lockdown and she has reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to conduct a “facility vulnerability assessment and security assessment as soon as possible.”
The facility is also reviewing security footage as part of its investigation into the breach and reviewing the three headcounts to see “why they did not detect those two individuals missing,” she said.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said a $20,000 reward for each man is being offered for information that leads to their arrest.
“The No. 1 responsibility right now is to get these guys off the street,” Kenney told reporters.
The next priority is to have the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections assess the system, he said.
“Clearly the system screwed up and people didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Kenney said. “But we’re going to find out exactly who, exactly how often and what we got to do to shore it back up again.”
Kenney said they will get to the bottom of it and “deal with the fallout from there.”
“I’m really angry about it,” the mayor said. “There’s no reason for this.”
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The woman accused of causing a crash that killed a bride on her wedding night last month in South Carolina had a blood alcohol level three times the legal threshold and was driving 40 miles per hour over the speed limit when she allegedly plowed her Toyota into the back of a golf cart, police documents show.
A golf cart carrying four people was struck from behind near Charleston on April 28, killing Samantha Miller, who had just celebrated her wedding earlier in the day.
Three others, including Miller’s new husband, Aric Hutchinson, were in the golf cart with her, police said. All suffered varying degrees of injuries when the collision propelled the cart roughly 75 yards, according to police.
In a redacted incident report released Thursday by the Folly Beach Department of Public Safety, responding officers described an uncooperative suspect, identified as 25-year-old Jamie Komoroski, who they said seemed to have little idea about what happened or where she was going when the crash happened.
“I was driving and then all of a sudden something hit me,” police said Komoroski told them after the crash, according to the report.
Komoroski has been charged with three counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury/death and one count of reckless homicide.
Officers said Komoroski also told them she was driving toward her house, but they said she had actually been going the opposite direction from her house, toward a dead end, the report states.
A toxicology report released by authorities on Thursday showed that Komoroski had a .261 blood alcohol level — three times the legal limit in South Carolina.
According to the incident report, police said Komoroski told them on the scene that she felt an eight out of 10 in terms of being impaired.
One of the responding officers “smelled an odor of alcohol coming from her breath and person,” he wrote in the report, adding that Komoroski had trouble standing and refused a breathalyzer test, forcing authorities to obtain a signed warrant from a judge to draw her blood.
“We cannot fathom what the families are going through and offer our deepest sympathies,” Komoroski’s attorneys told ABC News in a statement Thursday night. “We simply ask that there not be a rush to judgment. Our court system is founded upon principles of justice and mercy and that is where all facts will come to light.”
According to a GoFundMe created by a woman identifying herself as the mother of the groom, Miller and Hutchinson were being escorted from the reception by two family members when the crash happened.
“I was handed Aric’s wedding ring in a plastic bag at the hospital, five hours after Sam placed it on his finger and they read each other their vows,” Arnette Hutchinson wrote. “Aric has lost the love of his life.”
(NEW YORK) — A patch that sits on a person’s skin could help reduce the risk of severe allergic reactions in toddlers with peanut allergies, according to the newly published results of a small clinical trial.
The results, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that toddlers who wore the patch for 22 hours a day for one year were able to tolerate the equivalent of one to four peanuts, meaning their sensitivity to peanuts had been reduced.
The phase 3 trial, led by a physician at Children’s Hospital Colorado, involved more than 300 children ages 1 to 3, all with peanut allergies.
The patch, named Viaskin, works by releasing small doses of peanut protein powder that are absorbed into the skin, thereby exposing the child to peanuts, according to DBV Technologies, the biopharmaceutical company behind Viaskin.
The Viaskin patch is designed to be switched out daily and worn between the shoulder blades.
The latest medical guidelines recommend that if a child does not have any eczema or food allergy, a parent may start exposing them to peanut-containing foods as young as 6 months of age in order to reduce the risk of developing a peanut allergy, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
Peanuts are one of the eight foods that “account for the most severe allergic reactions in the United States,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . A food allergy affects 1 in 13 children in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Dr. Matthew Greenhawt, a lead author of the trial, said in a statement released by DBV Technologies that the patch has “the potential to give new hope” to families.
“This publication shows that, if approved, the Viaskin Peanut patch has the potential to give new hope to toddlers and their families who currently have no approved treatment options and must instead rely on avoidance, which can severely impact quality of life,” Greenhawt said. “The EPITOPE data are a meaningful advancement in potentially offering the first-ever FDA approved treatment option for peanut-allergic toddlers.”
DBV said in a statement it is “advancing regulatory efforts” to get Viaskin approved for children ages 1 to 3.
People with a peanut allergy must, in most cases, avoid peanut products in their diet and carry an injectable epinephrine — also called an EpiPen — for immediate use.
There is currently not an approved treatment for children under age 4 with a peanut allergy.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug designed to minimize the frequency and severity of a child’s allergic reaction to peanuts.
The drug, Palforzia, is a powder that comes in the form of pull-apart capsules. The powder is emptied from the capsules at the time it is taken and mixed into a semisolid food, like applesauce or yogurt, according to the FDA.
Palforzia is taken in three phases over the course of several months.
It is currently approved only for kids ages 4 to 17 with a “confirmed diagnosis of peanut allergy,” according to the FDA.
(WASHINGTON) — With the clock ticking for lawmakers to reach a debt ceiling deal or risk an unprecedented default, several emergency scenarios and short-term fixes are being debated.
A White House meeting between President Joe Biden and congressional leaders on Tuesday, which was the first major discussion between the parties in months, ended without a deal.
Staffers have been meeting daily since then to try to make progress, according to the White House, and the leaders are expected to meet again early next week.
But lawmakers are barreling toward default as early as June, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, though the exact date is uncertain.
Democrats say raising the debt ceiling is nonnegotiable and argue it should be done without conditions, while Republicans are pushing to tie long-sought federal spending cuts to any increase.
Two potential areas of agreement in budget negotiations appeared to have emerged: unspent COVID-19 money and energy permitting reforms.
But if there’s no deal between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, here are possible options being discussed to avoid or delay default.
A short-term fix
Lawmakers could agree to raise debt ceiling for a short period of time to avoid default while negotiations continue on federal spending. The issue would most likely be punted until Sept. 30, which is the end of the fiscal year.
Biden this week signaled a possible compromise on unspent COVID-19 money, saying he would consider clawing back those funds as Republicans have proposed — but didn’t say whether that would be part of debt limit talks.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” Biden said when asked Tuesday whether he’d support a short-term increase.
But neither side seems all-in on such a scenario.
“He’s gotta stop ignoring problems,” McCarthy said about Biden. “And why continue to kick the can down the road? Let’s solve it now.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said a short-term fix wasn’t the administration’s “plan” either.
Invoking the 14th Amendment
The impasse has raised questions about whether the Biden administration can unilaterally act to avoid default by essentially declaring the debt ceiling unconstitutional.
“I have been considering the 14th Amendment,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday. But he expressed concern it would be litigated and take months to resolve, ultimately not solving the problem fast enough.
The 14th Amendment states, “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have rejected the idea. “Unconstitutionally acting without Congress is also not an option,” McConnell said.
Payment prioritization, trillion-dollar coin and other tools
Some have said the Treasury Department could prioritize some payments if the debt limit is not increased. The GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee advanced a bill in March that would require the Treasury to first pay all principal and interest on the national debt, then all Social Security and Medicare benefits.
But officials have questioned how feasible payment prioritization is, and economists have predicted it would still likely lead to job losses and higher unemployment
Yellen told the House panel in March that such a scenario was just “default by another name.”
“The government, on average, makes millions of payments each day, and our systems are built to pay all of our bills on time and not to pick and choose which bills to pay,” Yellen said. “It would be an exceptionally risky, untested and radical departure from normal payment practices of agencies across the federal government.”
Another idea floated in past debt ceiling battles and now is the minting of a trillion-dollar coin — or a coin of another large denomination — by the Treasury to keep paying its bills.
Biden revealed Tuesday that his team hadn’t looked into the idea of a trillion-dollar coin as a potential workaround, and Yellen previously dismissed it as a “gimmick.”
“The only responsible path forward here is for Congress and the administration to work together to expeditiously pass a debt ceiling increase. Any scenario that does not envision a passage of a debt limit increase prior to the deadline puts at significant risk the safety and soundness of the U.S. dollar and the U.S. markets and the U.S. economy,” Chris Campbell, chief policy strategist at the financial services firm Kroll and a former assistant Treasury secretary, told ABC News.
“That being said, any serious Secretary of Treasury — which all of them in the United States have been — I’m certain are carefully reviewing their options should Congress and the administration not come to an agreement by the time that the debt ceiling is breached,” Campbell said “In the extremely unlikely event that that occurs, I’m certain that the Treasury Secretary would have a series of options at her disposal to be able to work through the challenges should that occur.”
Discharge petition
House Democrats have been laying the groundwork for a discharge petition, ABC News previously reported.
The petition is a complicated procedural tool that would allow members of the House to move a bill out of a committee and bring it to the floor without the support of the majority party leadership.
The petition requires 218 signatures to force a vote, meaning Democrats would need to get the support of at least five Republicans, and timing constraints.
(WASHINGTON) — The last time Joe Biden and Donald Trump shared a debate stage, the Democratic presidential nominee repeatedly attacked his opponent over his administration’s immigration policies.
“This is the first president in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That’s never happened before. That’s never happened before in our country,” Biden said with outrage.
“You come to the United States, and you make your case. That’s how you seek asylum, based on the following premise: Why I deserve it under American law,” the former vice president added at the time.
But now, that very criticism has come back around more than two years into Biden’s own term because critics — including members of his own party — human rights groups, and immigration lawyers say he has now implemented something close to what his predecessor did.
“Promises broken,” tweeted Julián Castro, who served with Biden in President Barack Obama’s cabinet and ran against him during the 2020 Democratic primary.
Biden administration officials, however, are quick to reject that idea, saying the new restrictions on asylum that the Biden administration announced on Wednesday do not close off the opportunity to seek asylum like Trump tried to do.
“This is not a ban on asylum. This is very different than the asylum ban that President Trump issued,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News Wednesday. “Our president has led the expansion of lawful pathways more than anyone in our history.”
The ban is different from Trump’s in a critical way. After penalizing Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador with cuts in aid, the Trump administration was able to force the three Central American countries to sign agreements saying they were so-called “safe countries” — meaning ones in which migrants seeking asylum would have to apply for the legal protection.
This meant that migrants reaching the southern U.S. border could not qualify for asylum if they transited one of those three countries — a policy that a federal judge ultimately struck down in Trump’s final days in office.
“Rather than ensure their safety, the rule increases the risk asylum applicants will be subjected to violence,” Judge Jon Tigar wrote, adding it was “inconsistent with existing asylum laws” and “deprives vulnerable asylum applicants of essential procedural safeguards.”
But Biden’s rule is quite similar. It requires a migrant seeking asylum to have first applied for and been denied the legal protection in another country. If not, it doesn’t mean an outright rejection like under Trump, but a “presumption of ineligibility.” In other words, an asylum-seeker would still have the chance to apply for asylum after crossing the border, but they’d have to meet a “higher threshold of proof” that they have a “credible fear” of returning to their home country and therefore qualify,” Mayorkas said.
That’s not the only restriction, either.
Migrants must make an appointment to request asylum at a port of entry using the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s app called CBP One. If not, and they cross the border without documents and outside a port of entry, they could face removal and a five-year ban on reentry.
Like Mayorkas referenced, Biden administration officials also point to the expanded lawful pathways to the U.S., including a parole program that admits up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans a month — but only if they have a U.S.-based sponsor and apply from overseas and not after crossing the border. The administration has also committed to accepting this year up to 100,000 Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans who have family sponsors already in the U.S.
But migrant’s rights advocates say it’s no alternative to the right to law, enshrined under U.S. law. Like Trump’s so-called transit ban, they say, Biden’s new policy runs afoul of the section that specifies that migrants can apply for asylum once on U.S. soil “whether or not at a designated port of arrival.”
“At a time of unprecedented global displacement, the Biden administration has elected to defy decades of humanitarian protections enshrined in U.S. law and international agreements,” said Lee Williams, chief programs officer at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of the largest U.S. resettlement agencies.
In particular, Williams condemned the requirement to first seek asylum in another country “as ludicrous as it is life-threatening” and the CBP One app “a life-or-death lottery.”
The app in particular has been the subject of ridicule because of glitches, including documented difficulty of taking photos of migrants with darker skin and the difficulty of obtaining an appointment, especially for families traveling together. CBP announced changes earlier this week, like prioritizing applicants who have been waiting the longest and making appointments available on a regular basis, not all at once at a scheduled time.
But for many, Biden’s new policies are particularly disheartening because of the very commitments that the president made during his campaign. On his campaign website, for example, he pledged to build a “fair and humane immigration system… ensuring the dignity of migrants and upholding their legal right to seek asylum.”
But even some of Biden’s own staffers have been disappointed. Jeremy Konyndyk, who was a senior Biden appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said the policy “runs directly contrary to President Biden’s repeated and vocal promises to undo his predecessor’s weakening of U.S. asylum protections.”
“The U.S. reaction to unprecedented numbers of people needing refuge here should not be — must not be — simply changing policies to more easily deny them protection. Yet that will be the essential effect of this new policy,” added Konyndyk, now president of Refugees International.
ABC News’s Karen Travers contributed to this report.
Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen. — Courtesy of the Goncalves family
(NEW YORK) — The family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of four University of Idaho students slain in a gruesome attack in November, vows to be there when her suspected killer returns to court next month.
“I can’t wait to see the evidence. … And then I’m gonna bring it,” Kaylee’s dad, Steve Goncalves, told ABC News. “And he’s gonna realize that this … is the family that’s gonna make sure he doesn’t get away with it.”
Kaylee, 21, was killed just weeks before she was set to graduate early from the University of Idaho and move to Texas for a new job.
In the early hours of Nov. 13, 2022, Kaylee; her lifelong best friend and roommate Madison Mogen; a third roommate, Xana Kernodle; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death inside the girls’ off-campus house. Two other roommates survived the shocking crime that garnered national intrigue.
After a six-week search for a suspect, 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30. Kohberger, who was a Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the murders, has not entered a plea.
The Goncalves, a close-knit family with five kids, said they haven’t been able to establish any connection between their daughter and Kohberger.
“I’ve thought long and hard” about if Kaylee and Kohberger could have crossed paths, said Kaylee’s mom, Kristi Goncalves. “We’ve talked as a family, you know, we’ve done a lot of research on what’s out there. … None of it makes sense.”
As for rumors that Kohberger had attended a party at the girls’ home, the family doubts that ever happened.
“You’re not having just some random stranger at your party,” Kaylee’s brother, Steven, noted. If Kohberger had ever been at the house, “There’s plenty of things that would have quickly [been] noticed and [he’d be] removed from the party.”
Kristi Goncalves said when she saw Kohberger for the first time at an initial court appearance, “I was completely overwhelmed. I actually almost thought I was gonna pass out.”
“My daughter saw him face-to-face and in a very different light than we saw him, sitting there [in court], looking very meek,” she said.
The Goncalves family said they’ll be in court for Kohberger’s June 26 preliminary hearing and the ensuing trial.
“I think a big thing is for us to go in strong, united as a family,” Kristi Goncalves said. “I’ve never been to a preliminary trial before. … I have no idea what to expect, I have no idea what we’re going to hear. … But I know that I’ve got my son, and my daughter will be there, and my sister, and my husband.”
But Kristi Goncalves said she’ll try to avoid the courtroom during any graphic testimony.
“I’m not going to scar myself,” she said. “I have visions of my own that, you know, I have to deal with.”
Asked about any communications with the two roommates who survived the stabbings, Steve Goncalves said he spoke with one of them at a “celebration of life” event.
“We do have some family members that do reach out,” Steve Goncalves said. “It’s good to make sure that everybody going through this has somebody there to help them.”
In February, the University of Idaho announced that the house where the four students were killed will be demolished.
“I’m glad that somebody else isn’t gonna live in it,” Kristi Goncalves said.
But, she added, “It’s going to be very multifaceted for me, honestly, because my daughter lived in that home. She lived a happy life in that home, she loved living there with her friends. And for the real story, to be, like, what happened in that house was so horrific that it has to be torn down — that doesn’t happen that often. … For them to say, ‘No, we don’t want family in here, we don’t want anybody living in here. It’s got to be torn down’ — it’s definitely not happy.”
A memorial, including a garden, will be designed on the university’s campus in honor of the victims.
Graduation at the University of Idaho is this Saturday. The Goncalves will be there to receive Kaylee’s posthumous degree.
(CLEVELAND) — Cleveland EMS worker Lachelle Jordan has been found safe, Cleveland Police Department Chief Dispatcher Tina Wickline told ABC News.
Authorities said that Jordan was last seen near Fairfield Avenue in Cleveland on May 6. Her family reported her missing the following day, prompting law enforcement to ask the public for help finding her. She was last seen wearing a blue and white East Cleveland Fire Department sweatshirt.
“We’re all just happy,” her father Joseph Jordan told ABC affiliate WEWS. He said that Jordan “looked to be okay, alert.”
In a surveillance video obtained by WEWS, Jordan can be seen walking into a convenience store barefoot with torn clothes. The convenience store, Open Pantry, is roughly three miles from where Jordan was last seen.
Jahid Islam, who was working in the store at the time, told ABC News that Jordan entered the store at roughly 10:50 p.m. and asked for a phone to call the police. Islam described that Jordan appeared “very weak”
“She asked me to give the phone, then she called the police first,” Islam said.
The circumstances around Jordan’s disappearance remain unclear. Her father Joseph Jordan previously told ABC News that Jordan was being stalked by Michael Stennett, who she was preparing to testify against in a rape an abduction case. Joseph Jordan said that Stennett violated a restraining order multiple times, both when Lachelle Jordan was at home and work. ABC News reached out to Stennett’s attorney Daniel Misiewicz for comment.
Cleveland Police said earlier this week there is no evidence connecting the Michael Stennett case to Jordan’s disappearance.
Yesterday, the Jordan’s family held a press conference to ask the public for help finding the EMT worker.
“We’re here to talk about the love of a family for a daughter who is missing,” Joseph Jordan said at the press conference.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
