14-year-old boy goes missing in ocean in New Jersey, search ongoing: Police
Aerial view of Coast of NJ (Michael Duva/Getty Images)
(WILDWOOD, N.J.) — The search is ongoing for a 14-year-old boy who went missing in the ocean at the New Jersey shore, officials said.
An officer in Wildwood was alerted to a swimmer in distress at about 1:26 p.m. Monday, local police said, and police, lifeguards and fire department personnel were sent to the scene.
The first responders saw several people in the surf and three swimmers were helped out of the water, according to police. One swimmer was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition, authorities said.
Officials then learned that a 14-year-old boy was still missing, police noted.
More rescuers joined the search for him, according to police, and the Coast Guard, New Jersey State Police and other agencies were called in to help look by boat and helicopter.
“Conditions were very rough,” Wildwood Fire Chief Ernie Troiano III told ABC News, noting there were strong winds, strong currents and rough seas.
The teen has not yet been found. Search efforts are ongoing, officials said.
A Carnival Cruise ship is docked at the PortMiami as the company becomes one of the first to be sued under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse on May 02, 2019, in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In February, after the teen was charged as a juvenile, the 16-year-old was permitted to live with his uncle instead of being held in custody. But in April, when the case was moved to adult court, prosecutors said the teen should be detained.
“We do not know what triggered him,” prosecutors argued in court Wednesday. “Who will be the next object he will become fixated on?”
The teen’s lawyers have countered that he’s a child who has been cooperative with the investigation and has shown no indication of hurting anyone in the months since his stepsister’s killing.
The suspect arrived at court Wednesday with his father and his uncle and was seen wearing an ankle monitor. The judge ruled he’s only allowed to leave his house with his uncle and will be electronically monitored by authorities.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said Wednesday that U.S. Marshals should examine options for potential detainment in the Tampa area.
Prosecutors allege the teenager “sexually assaulted and intentionally killed” his 18-year-old stepsister, Anna Kepner, during the family’s November vacation on a Carnival cruise. Anna Kepner died from mechanical asphyxiation, officials said.
Prosecutors are alleging more details about the night Kepner died from Wednesday’s hearing as well as a newly unsealed transcript from a February detention hearing.
Closed-circuit television on the cruise captured many of the movements of Kepner and her stepbrother, as well as the movements of their 13-year-old sibling who was sharing their room, prosecutors said in the Feb. 6 transcript.
The night Kepner died, the suspect was seen entering their shared cabin around 7:35 p.m., the transcript said. At about 7:38 p.m., Kepner was seen entering the cabin — the last time cameras would capture her alive, prosecutors said.
At approximately 7:51 p.m., the 13-year-old sibling entered the cabin and quickly exited, prosecutors said.
The suspect was not seen leaving the cabin again until 10:13 p.m., when he is “looking left and right down the hallway, appearing to check if there is anyone in the hallway,” prosecutors said. He’s seen between 10:23 p.m. and 10:49 p.m. “entering and exiting the cabin approximately two more times,” prosecutors said, and he put a privacy sign on the door at 10:53 p.m.
The video showed the 13-year-old and the suspect coming and going a few more times, prosecutors said. At 12:09 a.m., when the 13-year-old tried to get into the room, the suspect prevented him, and made the 13-year-old wait outside for a few minutes, prosecutors said.
Police in St. Louis County said they are searching for a missing-5-year-old girl. (St. Louis County Police Department)
(AFFTON, Mo.) — Police in Missouri said the report of a 5-year-old girl who went missing after she was left unattended in a running vehicle that was then stolen was a “hoax” — and that two women involved are expected to face charges.
An Amber Alert had been issued for an “Aleise Dawson,” who had been reported taken shortly before 8 a.m. local time in Affton, Missouri, according to the St. Louis County Police Department.
The Amber Alert has since been canceled after detectives learned a child had never been abducted, police said Monday afternoon. The reporting party recanted their story “after an intense investigation,” according to the St. Louis County Police Department.
“While we are extremely grateful that there is no child in danger, we want to be very clear — we will use all available resources to ensure our community members, especially the most vulnerable among us, are safe,” the St. Louis County Police Department said in a statement.
St. Louis County Police Lt. Col. Jerry Lohr said the department is seeking charges for filing a false police report.
“It’s important to note the amount of time and resources and the allocation of our resources that go into something like this. We take this very, very seriously,” he said during a press briefing Monday afternoon.
The story “unraveled” as police began to ask more questions about the reported missing child, Lohr said.
According to Lohr, one of the women involved told police that she was taking care of her dead sister’s child, who had been left in her car that was then stolen. The woman’s roommate had a similar story, he said.
Once detectives began contacting other family members, “it became apparent that that was not the case,” he said.
Amid the search, the police department said it did not have a photograph of the child. The lack of photos, as well as any children’s clothing or sightings of the child by other people, were “indicators” that led police to believe there was no missing child, Lohr said.
There was, however, a stolen car, Lohr said. A motive remains under investigation as to why a child was falsely reported missing, he said.
“I don’t know if there was a sense of panic. I don’t know if the individual thought that they would get more response to the fact that theirvehicle had been stolen,” Lohr said. “I can’t speak to the motivation of the individual.”
It was reported to police that the guardian had placed the child in the car, gone inside a residence to get something and “came back out and the car was gone,” St. Louis County Police Department spokesperson Vera Clay during a press briefing earlier Monday.
Officers responded to search for the reported missing child, and the vehicle was located several blocks away about two hours after the 911 call, according to Lohr.
Cessna Golden Eagle (Francois Joseph Berger / 500px/Getty)
(WIMBERLEY, Texas) — Five people were killed in a plane crash in Texas on Thursday night, investigators said.
Hayes County Judge Ruben Becerra said first responders received a call around 11:00 p.m. local time about a plane down in the area of Wimberley, which is roughly 30 miles southwest of Austin.
Fire and EMS crews found the downed Cessna 421C, along with the bodies of the five deceased passengers. Their identities were not immediately released.
Stacey Rohr lives in a house close to the crash site and told local reporters, including one from ABC affiliate KVUE, Friday morning that the crash rattled the neighborhood.
“It felt like an earthquake,” she said.
Although a cause of the crash was not immediately determined, investigators said preliminary information shows that there was no midair collision.
“Preliminary information indicates the aircraft was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of impact,” Becerra said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will take over the investigation, according to the judge.
The NTSB said in a statement that the Cessna was destroyed in a post-impact fire. An investigator is on the way to the scene, according to the agency.
Preliminary flight data obtained by ABC News found that the plane took off from Amarillo, Texas, which is about 420 miles northwest of the crash area, and was in the air for almost two hours before it crashed.
