Teen suspected of killing Maine paddleboarder to be charged with murder Friday
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(UNION, Maine) — The 17-year-old suspect in the murder of a paddleboarder earlier this month will appear in court on Friday, where he is expected to be charged with one count of murder.
Sunshine Stewart was found dead on July 3 at Crawford Pond in Union, Maine. Her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, Maine State Police revealed Thursday.
The suspect, who is male, was arrested without incident Wednesday night, police said. He came to the pond area to spend summer vacation time with his family, according to an official familiar with the investigation.
He is expected to appear remotely from the South Portland juvenile detention facility, where he is being held, in front of a Knox County district judge.
It is unclear whether the 17-year-old will be charged as an adult.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(PALM SPRINGS, Calif.) — The man charged earlier this month with conspiring to assist the suspected California fertility clinic bomber has died in federal custody, according to a statement from the Bureau of Prisons.
Daniel Park was found unresponsive on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, the federal law enforcement agency said.
“Responding employees initiated life-saving measures. Emergency medical services (EMS) were requested while life-saving efforts continued,” the statement said. “Mr. Park was transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital personnel.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service were notified, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Park, a 32-year-old Washington state native, was charged with conspiracy to manufacture an unregistered device and terrorism in the car bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The explosion occurred on May 17 at about 11 a.m. local time, rocking nearby buildings and leading to a fire and the collapse of a building, according to authorities. The debris field covered over 250 yards.
Four people were transported to the hospital for injuries sustained in the blast but were released the following day, officials said at the time.
The clinic, the American Reproductive Center of Palm Springs, said no members of its staff were harmed, and its lab — including all eggs, embryos and reproductive materials — were undamaged in the attack.
The primary suspect in the case, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, was found dead next to the detonated vehicle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s LA field office said last month.
Park was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York earlier this month after being detained in Poland on May 30, officials said at the time. Park allegedly fled to Europe four days after the bombing, officials said.
Park allegedly shipped approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor commonly used to construct homemade bombs, from Seattle to Bartkus in California as part of a plot related to the pair’s nihilist beliefs, according to officials. Park also allegedly paid for an additional 90 pounds of the substance in the days leading up to the Palm Springs attack, officials said.
Federal investigators allege the materials were used in the car bombing. Park also allegedly spent two weeks visiting the main suspect’s home in late January and early February of this year, the officials said. The two are believed to have been conducting experiments together in the main suspect’s garage.
Park and Bartkus followed a “pro-mortalism, anti-natalism, and anti-pro-life ideology,” officials said in a press conference after his arrest, adding the pair believed people should not be born without their consent and “nonexistence is best.”
Park and Bartkus appeared to have found each other in chat forums online as like-minded individuals, according to officials.
“On behalf of my children and myself, I want to express our deepest sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families,” Jenny Boelter said in a statement released by her attorneys on Thursday. “We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided.”
“It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith,” she continued. “We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”
When Vance Boelter allegedly fled the Hortmans’ home, sparking a massive manhunt, investigators recovered a list of about 45 elected officials in notebooks in his car, according to prosecutors. Two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings, officials said.
Jenny Boelter stressed in her statement that her family has cooperated with law enforcement from the start. She said when the authorities called her on the morning of June 14, she immediately drove to meet them.
“We voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested, and cooperate with all searches,” she said.
Hours after the shootings, Vance Boelter allegedly texted his family, “Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t want to implicate anybody,” according to an affidavit. He also allegedly texted his wife, “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation … there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around.”
In a search of Jenny Boelter’s car, law enforcement recovered at least one gun, about $10,000 in cash and family passports, the affidavit said.
After a nearly 48 hour manhunt, Vance Boelter was apprehended without incident.
“We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm,” Jenny Boelter said at the conclusion of her statement.
Vance Boelter faces federal charges including stalking and state charges including first-degree murder. He has not entered a plea and is due in court on Friday for a preliminary hearing.
ABC News’ Christiane Cordero contributed to this report.
(ALTOONA, PA) — Pennsylvania authorities denied on Monday they botched the handling of evidence during the arrest of alleged CEO killer Luigi Mangione.
“The Commonwealth avers that police at all times acted within the authority bestowed by law,” prosecutors wrote in a new court filing responding to a defense assertion that Mangione’s arrest was illegal.
Mangione has claimed police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, gave him “a specious and unreasonable” explanation for why officers approached him and failed to read him his Miranda rights when he was taken into custody on Dec. 9, 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to local charges of forgery, possession of an instrument of a crime and giving a false ID to an officer.
Prosecutors said police body-worn camera “captures his act of producing a forged driver’s license with false name to officers.”
Prosecutors also suggested there was nothing specious about the officers’ approach. According to the filing, a manager of the Altoona McDonald’s where Mangione was spotted described where he was seated, what he was wearing and customer accounts that he “looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”
The caller said she was asking for police assistance because she could not approach or confront Mangione herself.
“The officers had valid reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory detention to identify who Defendant-Mangione was and whether he was a homicide suspect,” the filing, signed by Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks, said. “Defendant-Mangione voluntary (sic) speaks to officers without police compulsion and willingly provides them with is forged identification. In fact, at no time does Defendant-Mangione ask to leave, attempt to leave or try to disengage from the detention.”
Mangione is charged separately in New York, where the shooting took place, with two counts of stalking, a firearms offense and murder through the use of a firearm in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4. Mangione allegedly shot Thompson outside the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan as he was heading to an investors’ conference. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the murder through the use of a firearm charge.
He pleaded not guilty to those charges in a court appearance on Friday. He is next due in court on Dec. 5 — just one day after the anniversary of Thompson’s killing. A trial will be scheduled for 2026.
The case in New York is expected to be tried before the state case in Pennsylvania.
