The killings of an elderly couple shot dead in their northern Nevada home ahead of Mother’s Day apparently went unnoticed until days later, after the 25-year-old suspect had also killed a newspaper deliveryman and another couple nearby, charging documents allege.

Jeremiah Bean was arraigned Thursday on 19 counts, including first-degree murder, arson and burglary. He was assigned a public defender and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Tuesday.

The victims were discovered Monday in and around the rural town of Fernley. The timeline laid out in court documents depicts a killer whose first two attacks came May 10 and went undetected, giving him the opportunity to kill three others.

“I’m pretty much in shock. It hasn’t really hit me,” said Gary Dolling, 60, who realized something was wrong when he saw flames leaping 20 to 30 feet in the air from his neighbors’ house Monday morning. “It’s just terrible. It’s just a horrible thing.”

Prosecutors say Bean entered the home of Robert and Dorothy Pape on the Friday before Mother’s Day and shot them. He also took hundreds of dollars in jewelry from the 84-year-olds, the charges state.

Three days later, authorities say, Bean took the Papes’ pickup truck to an exit along Interstate 80, toward the Mustang Ranch brothel.

After the pickup became disabled or stuck, Bean shot and killed a passer-by, stole his truck and left his body in a ditch, according to the Lyon County sheriff.

The 52-year-old victim, Eliazar Graham, worked as a backup deliveryman for the Reno Gazette-Journal. He had been delivering the newspaper at the time of his death, according the paper’s circulation department.

Bean also broke into the home of Angie Duff, 67, where he fatally attacked her and her boyfriend Lester Leiber, 69, with a gun and a knife, charging documents say.

Duff had recently started dating Leiber about four years after her husband died of cancer, according to Gina Gaglione, a fellow volunteer at the Fernley senior center.

Gaglione became concerned when Duff didn’t show up to volunteer Monday, so she sent another woman to check up on her. The woman noticed a smashed back door at Duff’s house and called police, Gaglione told the Gazette-Journal.

Duff’s home is around the corner from the Papes and two houses down from where Bean had been staying from time to time.

The string of killings first came to light early as smoked billowed from the Papes’ home, which is set away from other homes on a large, grassy lot that Robert Pape was often seen tending.

Bean had poured gasoline in the garage, according to court documents, and had somehow used Graham’s stolen truck in the arson.

Bean was found and arrested in the neighborhood where the two couples were killed.

Officials from the Lyon County sheriff’s office were not available to comment on the crimes Friday. No motive has been offered, and neighbors said they didn’t hear gunshots or notice suspicious activity over the weekend.

Dolling said he spoke briefly to the Papes’ son after the grisly discoveries, and the son recalled that he was unable to reach the couple on Mother’s Day.

Dolling also said he saw a white truck and a person standing outside the Papes’ home Monday morning. Without his glasses, Dolling said he assumed it was Robert Pape; he now believes it was the killer.

Sheriff Allen Veil has said that the attacks were on a scale he hasn’t seen in his three decades in Lyon County, historically a small farming community that has grown significantly in the last decade as a bedroom community for people who work in Reno.

“I think there probably should be a sense of relief that we believe we have the person responsible for this in custody,” Veil said at a news conference Wednesday. But he added that residents needed to be vigilant and aware that crime happens even “in little Lyon County.”

Bean has a previous felony conviction related to burglary and attempted grand larceny. He finished his parole in December. Authorities say he has also acknowledged gang ties.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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The family of a south Texas US Marine Corps veteran that has gone missing in Mexico says he was kidnapped by armed men.

Armando Torres, who served as a Marine for seven years, was visiting his father in a small city in Mexico across the Los Indios bridge Tuesday night, but failed to return as planned. Family members told NBC affiliate KVEO that Torres, along with two other family members from Mexico had been “picked up” by men with weapons.

“A cousin of ours from Mexico contacted his sister, and then his sister called us that he was picked up there in Mexico,” Eduardo Torres, the former Marine’s uncle, told the station. “He never goes to Mexico… [but] he just decided to go over there and visit his dad.”

The family has filed a missing persons report with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department, and has brought the matter to the attention of the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville, Texas.

Friends and supporters of Torres are attempting to spread awareness of this disappearance via the Internet. An open Facebook group, “Get Our Brother Back,” has been started May 17. A Reddit discussion thread posted by a user claiming to be a friend of Torres’ received more than 3,200 “upvotes” after it was created May 18.

“I know this… has been happening all the time down there, but you’d never expect a guy you’ve deployed with, lived with, and spent hours upon hours… with to be the one,” wrote user zachpoo, who started the thread.

Kidnapping is a recurrent problem in Mexico, and has been linked to drug cartel activity.

Citing numbers from Mexico’s Federal Police, Mexican newspaper El Universal wrote that 1,093 kidnappings were reported in Mexico from January to September of 2012. That figure equated to approximately 4.5 cases per day, but some organizations think the rate is much higher.

According InSight Crime, a site specializing in analysis of organized crime in the Americas, the police numbers ignore “express kidnappings,” where victims are detained for a matter of hours, in exchange for a ransom payment.

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DOVER, Del. — A woman who lived with a Delaware pediatrician accused of waterboarding her 11-year-old daughter has agreed to plead guilty to child endangerment charges and testify against him.

In accepting a plea offer from prosecutors, Pauline Morse agreed Friday to plead guilty to three misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child and to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Dr. Melvin Morse.

Melvin Morse, 59, has written a best-selling book and achieved national recognition for his research into near-death experiences involving children. Police suggested in an affidavit that he may have been experimenting on the girl last year, a claim he denies.

A trial for Melvin Morse is scheduled to start June 10. Morse and his attorney, Joe Hurley, did not immediately return telephone messages seeking comment Friday.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office had no immediate comment.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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A former Philadelphia police officer, once hailed as a hero and given a seat next to the first lady at a speech by President Obama, is being held on $60 million bail charged with raping two women at gunpoint and other crimes.

A source tells NBC10 former officer Richard DeCoatsworth, 27, met one of the women at a bar on North Front Street two weeks ago, then forced her into prostitution at a Days Inn hotel along Roosevelt Boulevard.

Between 2 a.m. Thursday and Friday evening, DeCoatsworth went to the woman’s home along North Howard Street in the Fishtown-Kensington area, according to the source.

Once he arrived, DeCoatsworth forced that woman and a second woman, both in their 20s, to use drugs and perform oral sex on him at gunpoint, according to the source. The alleged victims reported the assault Friday only after DeCoatsworth went home, according to police.

Police raided DeCoatsworth’s house on the 2700 block of Salmon Street in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He was charged with rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats and related offenses. Police also confiscated drugs and guns from the home, according to a source. No word yet on what kind of drugs were removed from the home.

According to court documents, bail was set at $25 million for each of the alleged victims. Another $10 million bail was set in a separate domestic violence case DeCoatsworth is now being charged with, according to investigators. Police say he assaulted his live-in girl on May 9. The $60 million bail is reportedly one of the highest set in Philadelphia history. Decoatsworth faces more than 32 crimes in all three cases.

NBC10’s Cydney Long talked to one of DeCoatsworth’s neighbors who said she was relieved to hear about the former cop’s arrest.

“I am scared to be saying this now but I hope he stays where he is at, he has been a thorn in the side of this neighborhood for so long,” said the woman who did not want to be identified.

DeCoatsworth was shot in the face back in 2007 when he was a rookie officer. After being shot, he managed to chase down the suspect for several blocks before collapsing. He called in enough information by radio that police were able to track down and arrest the suspect later the same day.

His heroism earned him an invitation from Vice President Joe Biden to attend President Obama’s first congressional address at the U.S. capital in February of 2009. The officer sat with First Lady Michelle Obama during the address. He was also honored by his peers as a 2008 Top Cop. He was involved in two more dramatic incidents soon after.

In April of 2009, police say DeCoatsworth was jumped and attacked by a man when he tried to disperse a crowd at the Logan section of the city. During the struggle, sources say DeCoatsworth’s gun went off and hit the suspect who took off running. Another officer responding to the scene shot the suspect dead, according to sources.

In September of 2009, police said DeCoatsworth and another officer stopped a man on a motorcycle in the Kensington section of the city. While they were questioning him, a second man allegedly jumped on the motorcycle and drove at the officers. Police say DeCoatsworth shot at the suspect, who sped off. The suspect was found later at the hospital where his mother had taken him to be treated for a shotgun wound.

During the incident, local witnesses claimed the two suspects did nothing wrong and that DeCoatsworth and the other officer acted recklessly, shooting while children were nearby.

In November of 2011, Internal Affairs investigated an alleged scuffle between DeCoatsworth and another officer, according to Philly.com. The Daily News also reports he amassed nine citizen complaints, accusing him of assault, abuse and misconduct.

DeCoatsworth retired from the police force on disability back in December, 2011.

In February of 2012, an arrest warrant was issued for DeCoatsworth after he allegedly threatened a woman in Port Richmond.

Source: nbcphiladelphia.com

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Authorities are investigating the overnight shooting death of a 32-year-old man in New York’s Greenwich Village as a hate crime after police said the shooter may have hurled anti-gay slurs.

“This clearly looks to be a hate crime,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Saturday.

While investigators continued to piece together the events leading up to the shooting, police identified the victim as Marc Carson of Manhattan.

Carson was outside a 99 Cent Pizza on Sixth Avenue before midnight with a friend when they were approached by the suspect, the friend told police, according to NBC New York. After the suspect hurled anti-gay slurs, Carson responded and then walked away, the friend told police.

The suspect approached Carson and the friend again on West 8th Street near Sixth Avenue, law enforcement officials said. The suspect then allegedly pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and shot Carson in the face.

Carson suffered a single gunshot wound to the head, according to a police release. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Hospital.

The suspect was later apprehended after trying to outrun an officer who tried to question him. Police say officers found a silver-colored revolver in the suspect’s possession. The man was identified as Elliot Morales, 33, of Manhattan, NBCNewYork.com reported. Police said Morales had an arrest for attempted murder in 1998, NBCNewYork.com reported.

The police are seeking to question two unidentified men who were said to have been with him earlier in the evening, law enforcement officials said.

The suspect had a separate encounter at a West Village restaurant earlier in the evening, police say. A manager and bouncer at the restaurant said the suspect made anti-gay comments and threats, NBC New York reported.

“I am horrified to learn that last night, a gay man was murdered in my district after being chased out of a Greenwich Village restaurant and assailed by homophobic slurs,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement on Saturday.

“There was a time in New York City when hate crimes were a common occurrence,” the mayoral hopeful said. “We refuse to go back to that time. This kind of shocking and senseless violence, so deeply rooted in hate, has no place in a city whose greatest strength will always be its diversity.”

Sharon Stapel of the New York City Anti-Violence Project said in a statement she was “deeply disturbed” by the shooting.

Police said that a gay couple was attacked in a separate incident on May 10 near Madison Square Garden and severely beaten. One of the victims later required eye surgery. Another gay couple was assaulted by a group of men only days before in the same midtown area of the city.

“New York has seen a shocking increase in hate crime in recent weeks,” Assembly Member Deborah Glick said. “We must stand together as one city and declare that New York is not open for bigotry.”

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A US Airways flight made a belly landing at Newark International Airport in the early morning hours on Saturday after the plane reported a problem with its landing gear, a spokesman for the airline said.

No injuries were reported after Express Flight 4560 landed just after 1 a.m. carrying 31 passengers and three crew from Philadelphia, US Airways spokesman Davien Anderson said in a statement. The De Havilland DASH-8 100 turboprop plane was operated by Piedmont Airlines, he said.

“Passengers were evacuated, transported to a terminal and loaded on buses,” Anderson said. “All passengers departed the airport shortly after the landing after being reunited with their belongings and baggage.”

The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the emergency landing and assessing the extent of damage to the plane, the agency said on its Twitter feed on Saturday.

The plane declared an emergency after its left main landing gear failed to extend, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The FAA is also investigating the incident.

“The aircraft landed successfully on Runway 4L at about 1 a.m. The airport was closed until 2:55 a.m.,” the FAA said in a statement. “Runway 4L remained closed until 9:34 a.m.”

The aircraft sustained “minimal damage,” FAA spokesman Arlene Salec told NBC New York.

WNBC

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DAMASCUS, Va. – An elderly driver plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Saturday parade in a small Virginia mountain town and investigators were looking into whether he suffered a medical emergency before the accident.

About 50 to 60 people suffered injuries ranging from critical to superficial, but no fatalities were reported. Three of the worst injured were flown by helicopter to area hospitals. Their conditions weren’t immediately available.

Another 12 to 15 victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance and the rest were treated at the scene, where some paramedics and other first-responders were participating in the parade.

It happened around 2:10 p.m. during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, near the Tennessee state line about a half-hour drive east of Bristol.

Damascus Police Chief Bill Nunley didn’t release the driver’s name or age but said he was participating in the parade and he had traversed the Appalachian Trail in the past. Multiple witnesses described him as an elderly man.

Nunley said the man’s 1997 Cadillac was one of the last vehicles in the parade and the driver might have suffered an unspecified medical problem when his car accelerated to about 25 mph and struck the crowd on a two-lane bridge along the town’s main road. The driver was among those taken to hospitals.

“It is under investigation and charges may be placed,” Nunley said.

Witnesses said the car had a handicapped parking sticker and it went more than 100 feet before coming to a stop.

“He was hitting hikers,” said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. “I saw hikers just go everywhere.”

Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.

“Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up,” she said.

Keith Neumann, a hiker from South Carolina, said he was part of the group that scrambled around the car. They pushed the car backward to free a woman trapped underneath and lifted it off the ground to make sure no one else was trapped.

“There’s no single heroes. We’re talking about a group effort of everybody jumping in,” he said.

Nunley cited quick action by police, firefighters, paramedics and hikers to tend to the victims, including a volunteer firefighter who dove into the car to turn off the ignition. The firefighter, whose name wasn’t released, suffered minor injuries.

Mayor Jack McCrady encouraged people to attend the festival on Sunday, its final day.

“In 27 years of this, we’ve never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

McCrady said a donation fund was being set up to assist the injured, some of whom don’t have medical insurance.

“We want to make sure they don’t suffer any greater loss than they already have,” he said.

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TOLEDO, Ohio — A 17-year-old who told authorities last week where they could find the bodies of two teenage brothers has been charged in their deaths, and prosecutors want to try him as an adult.

The aggravated murder charges announced Friday against Michael Fay came just over a week after he and the teens were named in an Amber Alert issued after the slain brothers’ mother discovered a gun and blood inside a trailer home where the three boys lived with their mothers. The mother frantically called 911 on May 9, telling authorities to “please hurry.”

The brothers, 14-year-old Blaine Romes and 17-year-old Blake Romes, were found dead several hours later.

Fay told officers that the Romes brothers were dead and pointed authorities to their bodies after he was found with a stolen car at a gas station in Columbus, about 120 miles southeast of the trailer park in Ottawa, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.

He pleaded not guilty to a grand theft auto charge a week ago, but was not immediately charged in the deaths. The aggravated murder charges were filed Thursday in juvenile court, but a judge has been asked to send the case to adult court, said county Prosecutor Gary Lammers.

Fay’s attorney and his mother have declined to comment.

Authorities have released few details about what happened, saying they are limited because those involved are juveniles. Investigators have not said how the boys died. Documents from the sheriff’s office indicate one of the bodies was found at the trailer while the other was found at a different location, but didn’t say where. Autopsies were completed a week ago, but the county coroner has refused to release the results.

Hundreds of classmates attended a funeral Wednesday for the brothers in Ottawa, a village of 4,500 people south of Toledo.

The younger brother, Blaine, was supposed to join his classmates on an eighth-grade class trip to Washington the morning he disappeared. His mother told a 911 dispatcher she left work because he was not answering his phone that morning.

He was on the basketball and track teams at his school.

Blake was a junior at Ottawa-Glandorf High School, where he was involved in track and choir.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

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