1 dead as landslide sweeps across roads, into homes in Alaska, officials say
(KETCHIKAN, Alaska) — A landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska, has killed at least one person and has blocked roads and damaged houses, officials said.
Three people were injured and taken to the hospital, according to Kacie Paxton, a public information officer for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. One of those people was later released, she said.
Mandatory evacuations were put in place after the landslide swept through several streets in Ketchikan at about 4 p.m. Sunday, Paxton said. Alaska State Troopers and local authorities were undertaking search and rescue operations.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an Alaska Disaster Emergency Declaration. A separate Joint Disaster Emergency Declaration was issued by borough Mayor Rodney Dial and city of Ketchikan Mayor Dave Kiffer.
“In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude,” Kiffer said in a statement. “With the slides we have seen across the region, there is clearly a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand with the support of our state geologist.”
“The loss of life that we have encountered is heartbreaking, and my heart goes out to those who lost their homes,” he added.
Photos released by the borough appeared to show a pile of trees and loose soil up against several hillside homes, at least one of which appeared to have been pushed into another home. Other photos appeared to show roads covered with debris, including trees.
“Our prayers are with the families, the injured, those recovering, and the community,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said on social media, later adding, “My team and I stand ready to help facilitate any federal assistance that may be necessary.”
Ketchikan Gateway Borough officials warned Monday morning that “the slide area remains unstable.”
“State and local geologists will be onsite mid-morning to assess the area for potential secondary slides,” officials said. “A NOAA weather team and representatives from the State Emergency Operations Center will also be on scene.”
This landslide comes as Ketchikan saw about 3 inches of rain this month — about half its average rainfall for August.
Ketchikan received over 2.5 inches of rainfall over this weekend, and higher elevations in the Ketchikan Range reported 5 to 9 inches of rain. Too much rain at once after a drier period can cause a landslide.
The rain will continue Monday morning and then dry off through Tuesday. More rain is expected Wednesday and Thursday as a new frontal system moves in.
Landslides are common in southeast Alaska. Six people were killed, including an 11-year-old girl, in a major landslide in Wrangell, about 100 miles north of Ketchikan, last November.
(KAPOHO, Hawaii) — A man recently identified as a suspect in the 1991 murder of a 23-year-old woman has died by suicide, days after a DNA swab from his cheek matched DNA evidence collected at the crime scene 33 years ago, according to the Hawaii Police Department.
Albert Lauro Jr., 57, was identified as a suspect in the murder of Dana Ireland, who had been kidnapped and raped in the Kapoho area of Hawaii Island on Dec. 24, 1991, according to police. She died a day later at a local hospital.
“This case is still under investigation. Albert Lauro Jr. has been linked to the victim by DNA; however, his exact involvement is still under investigation. And his death was ruled a suicide by the forensic pathologist,” Hawaii Police Department Captain Rio Amon-Wilkins told ABC News.
DNA evidence had been recovered from a swab taken from Ireland’s body, from a sheet used to transport her to the hospital and from a t-shirt found at the scene and was used by police to identify a suspect in her murder this month, according to Hawaii PD.
At the time of the murder, there was no match for the evidence in any DNA database, police said.
In 2008, the DNA evidence was sent to the Forensic Analytical Crime Lab in California, and additional DNA evidence was collected from the T-shirt, which matched other samples from the scene, according to Hawaii PD.
DNA experts are now able to take data from a DNA sample and build a family tree based on known DNA from relatives. Earlier this year, an FBI agent from the Honolulu Field Office contacted police investigators with the names of some people who could potentially match the DNA sample — including Lauro Jr., according to Hawaii PD.
Lauro Jr. lived in the Kapoho area at the time of the murder, so police surveilled him, eventually collecting a utensil that he had been using and then threw away. The DNA collected from the utensil matched the DNA evidence connected to the crime, police said.
The evidence established probable cause for the crime of rape. The statute of limitations for the crime had run out, but investigators were able to continue to investigate the case as a murder — though they did not have enough evidence to establish probable cause and arrest Lauro Jr., according to Hawaii PD.
Investigators obtained a court order for a cheek swab from the suspect, then asked him to come to the station and talk to investigators — but he was not taken into custody at the time. After the swab was taken he asked to leave and was allowed to do so. The swab then matched the DNA taken from the scene of the crime 33 years ago after it was analyzed at the California lab, according to Hawaii PD.
“The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects individuals from unwarranted search and seizure,” Hawaii Police Department Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz said in a statement. “In order to obtain a search warrant, investigators would have to have established probable cause for the crime of murder and explained specifically what evidence it was seeking.”
“We remain focused on Dana Ireland, a young woman who was brutally murdered. There is still a lot about this case that we do not know and our investigation into this case continues to push forward. Our search for the truth is not over,” Moszkowicz said.
(NEW YORK) — Two people have been arrested in connection with a spree of bronze veteran marker thefts from headstones being stolen from cemeteries across Indiana, police said.
The La Porte County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation on Aug. 28 following a series of reports to authorities that bronze veteran markers were being stolen from grave headstones in the immediate vicinity of Union Mills and Rolling Prairie Cemeteries, but also from headstones in the Carmel, Pinola, Greenwood and St. Stan’s Cemeteries.
In total police found that at least 15 bronze veteran markers were reported as being stolen and one additional as being damaged.
“On August 28th, the agency publicly announced the investigation and encouraged citizens to visit the gravesites of deceased veterans,” the La Porte County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media regarding the case. “Just one day later, credible information was provided to investigators identifying a suspect.”
Following their investigation, Detective Jake Koch and Detective Aaron Banic arrested 53-year-old Terry Wood and 25-year-old Breanna Puentez in connection with the thefts.
“Personnel from several divisions executed an operation dubbed, ‘Justice, Peace and Salute’ this morning at a residence in the 400 block of Andrew Avenue in La Porte,” police said. “Wood was taken into custody and additional evidence was recovered from the property. Later in the day, Puentez was taken into custody and charged in Circuit Court for her role in the theft ring.”
Wood and Puentez currently remain in police custody and have been charged with one count of felony theft and 15 felony counts each of cemetery mischief, police confirmed.
Wood is now being held on a $15,005 cash-only bond and Puentez is not eligible for bond, authorities added.
“This type of criminal behavior is disgusting, unacceptable, and will not be tolerated in La Porte County! It is the hope of the entire Sheriff’s Office that because of the diligent and thorough investigation by Detectives Koch and Banic, justice will be served to both accused subjects,” said Captain Derek J. Allen. “Hopefully, US Veterans, both deceased and living, can find peace and comfort with these arrests, and with that, we salute them for their service.”
The investigation into the thefts is currently ongoing and a court date has not yet been announced for the accused individuals.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County is choosing to continue with the “care first, jails last” approach when addressing the more than 75,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in the county, despite recent pressure from California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We can’t arrest our way out of what’s going on in the streets,” said L.A. Board Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is one of five board members who unanimously voted this week against Newsom’s executive order on dismantling homeless encampments across the state.
In his executive order on July 25, Newsom announced $24 billion in funding given to local governments across the state to address widespread homeless encampments, saying in a statement there are “simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
The governor’s order follows the Supreme Court’s landmark City of Grants Pass, Oregon, v. Johnson decision in June that gave localities the justification to fine and arrest people for sleeping outdoors on public property.
Barger maintained that she’s not at odds with Newsom’s order but rather supporting the ongoing work the board and its partners have been doing to solve the homelessness crisis in the county.
“The concern we have is if we’re not all on the same page, as it relates to how the Grants Pass decision impacts the ability to clean up encampments, we are going to be just moving people from one city to another,” Barger said of the 88 municipalities within Los Angeles County.
Showing a united front with the board of supervisors, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during the meeting Tuesday, “Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual’s status.”
Barger believes the pathway to permanent results for the county’s unhoused population is paved with outreach, mental health services and job training, which she says “gets lost” in the conversation.
The “Care First, Jails Last” investment is the Measure J ballot initiative approved by voters in 2020 to set aside at least 10% of existing locally controlled, unrestricted revenues to be directed to community investment and alternatives to incarceration.
Within the measure is the Care First Community Investment (CFCI), which has received $88.3 million in annual allocation from the Board of Supervisors.
Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) is a group of law enforcement officers who work with homeless services agencies to help people experiencing homelessness.
Supervisor Hilda Solis told ABC News the law enforcement partnership “has been an integral partner in our Care First approach.”
“Since their establishment, HOST has never resorted to arrests to address encampments in the public’s right of way or that pose a public health concern,” Solis said.
Despite pressure at the state level, Los Angeles City has in fact seen fewer people living on the streets in the last year.
The L.A. City Controller’s office confirmed to ABC News the city saw a 10,000-person decrease in the unhoused population between 2023 and 2024.
This month, the nonprofit policy organization RAND released a 2023 study that showed that in areas with frequent encampment clearings, those encampments returned within two to three months.
After mass clearings of the homeless encampments in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, the share of unhoused people jumped from 20% to 46%, according to the study.
In a report released in June 2024, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found that LA Municipal Code 41.18, which allows for encampment removal in certain areas, isn’t effective at reducing encampments or helping to house people — while costing over $3 million in two years, not including enforcement costs.
“I’ve never seen incarceration work to end homelessness, I’ve only seen that extend homelessness,” Downtown Women’s Center CEO Amy Turk told ABC News.
The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles focused on serving women and gender-diverse individuals experiencing homelessness.
Turk has worked directly with the unhoused population in Los Angeles for two decades, providing trauma-informed outreach, shelter and helping people towards permanent housing.
“When I’ve seen people move toward criminalization, dismantling an encampment and offering no place for people to go, then what you see is people move from one plot of land to another plot of land, and you’re not solving anything.”
However, others say the county and local organizations’ efforts to keep people off the streets are not noticeable on the ground floor, where encampments, they say, continue to impede the lives of other residents.
“I think it’s very clear that the programs and policies both at the city level and the county level, have failed to reduce the number of people on the streets in a significant and sustainable way,” Paul Webster, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights (LAAHR), told ABC News.
“Residents, business owners and even people experiencing homelessness themselves, have for years have been told that things are improving and that the city and the county have enacted programs that would end homelessness in Los Angeles, and for years, that has not come to pass,” Webster added.
In 2020, LAAHR sued the City and County of Los Angeles, claiming that the city’s leaders were not doing enough to address the homelessness crisis.
Webster said the lawsuit demanded an increased number of shelter beds, increased access to mental health and drug abuse treatment and a return to the intended uses of public rights of way and public spaces.
In 2022, the lawsuit was settled with the county agreeing to pay $236 million to fund increased services, outreach, and interim housing.
“We’ve seen some progress,” Webster said two years after the suit, adding, “We’re still working to actively monitor and actively hold the city and the county accountable for these commitments.”