Search underway for missing College of Charleston student last seen early on Halloween: Police
Charleston Police Department
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Authorities in South Carolina said they are searching for a 19-year-old college student who has been missing since Halloween.
Owen Tillman Kenney was last seen early on Oct. 31 in Charleston, according to the Charleston Police Department.
The teen was last seen by friends around 2 a.m. in an area near his school, the College of Charleston, police said. Detectives have confirmed he was then walking alone onto the Ravenel Bridge pedestrian walkway shortly after 3 a.m., police said.
“His cell phone’s last recorded location was also on the Ravenel Bridge around that same time,” the Charleston Police Department said in an update Tuesday.
Authorities initially said Kenney was last seen wearing a green and white Boston Celtics Halloween costume. Though Charleston police said in the update Tuesday that “subsequent evidence now confirms that he was wearing a black hooded jacket, light-colored pants, and black Nike sneakers with white soles.”
He was reported missing on Nov. 1, according to the College of Charleston Department of Public Safety.
“CofC Public Safety personnel are working diligently to share with Charleston Police any information that may be helpful in the search,” the College of Charleston Department of Public Safety said in a statement on Tuesday.
“At this time, there is no reason to believe that there is any danger to the campus community in relation to this case,” the department added.
The search has involved K9 units, drones and an underwater recovery team, police said.
The school said it is offering support for those impacted by Kenney’s disappearance.
Hunter missing for nearly 20 days in California wilderness found alive: Officials Kenney graduated from Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, New Jersey, last year, according to the school, which shared photos of the missing teen on social media while urging people to share and “pray for his safe return.”
Charleston detectives are working with the FBI and New Jersey State Police on the investigation into Kenney’s disappearance, police said.
Police described Kenney as a white man who is 6-foot-1, weighs 155 pounds and has brown hair and blue eyes.
Anyone with information on his last known activities or whereabouts is asked to contact the Charleston Police Department at 843-720-2422 or submit a tip here.
Cancer patient Ofelia Torres holds up her baby photos, some of the include her father Ruben Torres-Maldonado. He will be released from immigration detention as early as Thursday. (ABC News)
(CHICAGO) — Chicago immigration judge Eva Saltzman on Thursday set a $2,000 bond for Ruben Torres-Maldonado, whose 16-year-old daughter Ofelia Torres is battling stage 4 cancer. Torres-Maldonado will be released from immigration detention as early as Thursday.
During the hearing, the judge not only ruled for him to be released, but also said he is now eligible to apply for a cancellation of removal based on the hardship his family would endure if he’s forced to leave the country. If his application is denied, he could still face deportation.
Despite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier claiming Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” who has a history of driving offenses, Saltzman said she had no reason to believe that he posed a risk to the public.
“I see that you have very strong family ties and community ties in the United States and that you’ve hired an attorney which shows me that you take these proceedings very seriously,” the judge said. “And I see nothing in the record that would indicate to me that you pose a danger to the community.”
Torres-Maldonado also noted during the hearing that he has a valid license and insurance.
“I wish you much luck in the future, and I wish your daughter a full recovery,” the judge said.
DHS didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the judge’s order.
In an interview with ABC News last week, 16-year-old Ofelia Torres recalled receiving a strange phone call on Oct. 18. She said her mom had just put on sterile gloves and was helping to drain the ascites — a buildup of fluid — in her abdomen when it came.
“The first call that came through was Walgreens, and so we just declined the call. It was probably just my medication,” Torres said. “Another call came through and it said prison slash jail and I was like ‘Why is the prison calling me?’ But in my head, I kind of knew, I think they got my dad.”
Since learning that federal immigration agents arrested Torres-Maldonado at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, on Oct. 18, Ofelia has made it her mission to continue fighting her stage 4 cancer diagnosis and her father’s possible deportation too.
ABC News interviewed the teen at her home in Chicago last week as part of a “Nightline” story on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement mission in the state. Dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” by the administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) campaign targeting undocumented people in Chicago and greater Illinois.
Torres-Maldonado is one of more than 2,800 undocumented immigrants that the Trump administration says it has apprehended in the Chicago area since they announced the operation in early September.
At a recent press conference, attorney Kalman Resnick, who is representing Torres-Maldonado, said federal agents surrounded his client’s vehicle, smashed the window of his truck and “dragged” him into a vehicle at gunpoint.
ICE is under the supervision of the DHS. In a statement sent to ABC News before the hearing, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee.
“His criminal history shows he has a history of habitual driving offenses and has been charged multiple
times with driving without insurance, driving without a valid license, and speeding,” McLaughlin said.
Torres denied the government’s claims that her father is a criminal.
“I’ve gotten a parking ticket, am I a criminal?” she said. “Sometimes we break a law without even knowing, does that make us criminal? I don’t know.”
Torres was diagnosed with metastatic aviolar rhabdomyosarcoma — an aggressive form of cancer — last December. The teen said she tried to keep her diagnosis private for several months, but told ABC News she is speaking out to defend her father. She said Torres-Maldonado instilled in her a sense of gratitude for the country they call home.
“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”
The immigration crackdown in Chicago has come under scrutiny from advocates and legal experts including Mark Fleming, associate director of Federal Litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center, who told ABC News that many of the arrests and detainments have been unlawful.
So far, the human rights organization National Immigrant Justice Center has presented over 800 cases that they claim were unlawful under a consent decree — a court-ordered agreement between parties that resolves a dispute — limiting DHS’ ability to hold someone who entered into the country unlawfully without a bond hearing.
Fleming told ABC News the organization has 280 more cases that his legal team will soon present before a judge.
“It’s truly unprecedented. We are lead counsel in a class action lawsuit that has a consent decree that dictates when and how DHS, Department of Homeland Security, whether it’s Border Patrol or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, can stop and arrest people without warrants,” Fleming said.
“Regardless of what you feel about immigration or the levels of immigration or the level of enforcement — those are fair debates for us to have. What is deeply troubling here is the lawlessness, the violence, the cruelty, the carelessness with which they are doing this operation,” he later added.
Torres said despite how her father was treated, she has “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.
“That’s all I have for everyone in this world. Love in my heart,” she said. “To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do.”
– ABC News’ Ashley Schwartz Lavares, Jessica Hopper, Sally Hawkins, John Kapetaneas and WLS’s Tom Jones contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A federal government shutdown is looming, with the government set to run out of funding at midnight from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.
Here are some frequently asked questions about the impacts a potential shutdown would have on travel:
Will TSA work in a shutdown?
Transportation Security Administration workers at airport checkpoints will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown.
According to Department of Homeland Security documents, 58,488 employees out of the total TSA workforce of 61,475 will be retained during a shutdown.
Will my flight get canceled?
No. Commercial flights will continue to operate and airline employees will not be impacted.
How will air traffic controllers be impacted?
Over 13,000 air traffic controllers will continue to work — without pay — during a shutdown, according to the Department of Transportation’s shutdown plan.
The only controllers who will be furloughed will be those who are not certified or are in training at the ATC academy, and all training would cease. NATCA, the union representing air traffic controllers, previously told ABC News that the shutdown in 2018-2019 “eroded critical layers of safety necessary to support and maintain the [national air space]. Many of the safety activities that proactively reduce risk and increase the safety of the system were suspended during that shutdown.”
What happened to air travel during the 2018-2019 shutdown?
During the 2018-2019 shutdown, which lasted for 35 days, TSA officers called out of work at an increased rate due to financial hardship, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News at the time. Those staffing shortages caused some TSA lines to close, which led to an increased wait time for passengers to get through security.
ABC News reported that air traffic controllers called out sick at the centers in New York, Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida, leading to a staffing-related ground stop at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and flight delays at some New York and Florida airports. Hours after flights were stopped, President Donald Trump ended the shutdown. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., credited the controllers with ending the shutdown, The New York Times reported.
What about train travel?
Amtrak said in a statement that its operations will continue as usual.
“Passengers planning to travel on Amtrak trains in the Northeast Corridor and across the country in the coming days and weeks can be assured that Amtrak will remain open for business,” Amtrak said.
Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused severe flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, leaving more than 80 people reported dead, including children attending the camp. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) —The families of multiple campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic who died in the devastating flash flood in Texas in July are suing the camp, alleging gross negligence and reckless disregard for safety led to a “self-created disaster” that claimed the lives of 28 people total.
The Fourth of July flood wiped out the Christian all-girls sleepaway camp located along the Guadalupe River, which rapidly rose overnight while campers were sleeping. Twenty-five campers, two counselors and the camp’s director died after flood waters inundated the camp, trapping many in their cabins.
One of three lawsuits filed Monday includes the families of five campers — Anna Margaret Bellows, 8; Lila Bonner, 9; Molly DeWitt, 9; Lainey Landry, 9; and Blakely McCrory, 8 — and the two counselors who died — Chloe Childress, 18, and Katherine Ferruzzo, 19 — as plaintiffs.
“Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas. They all are gone,” the petition stated. “And while their families struggle with their loss, the Camp’s actions since the tragedy have only deepened the pain.”
Among the actions, the lawsuit cites the recent announcement that Camp Mystic will partially reopen one of its sister sites next summer and continues to evaluate plans to rebuild the Guadalupe River location.
“And through it all, the Camp refuses to accept any responsibility for its actions and failures to act, defiantly blaming this tragedy on ‘an act of God’ that no responsible steps could have avoided,” the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit claims that the camp officials “focused on profits over safety,” made “catastrophic decisions concerning the cabin locations” and had unsafe policies regarding floods, including an alleged “never evacuate” order.
The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages, according to the petition.
“Our clients have filed this lawsuit to seek accountability and truth,” one of the families’ attorneys, Paul Yetter, said in a statement. “Camp Mystic failed at its primary job to keep its campers and counselors safe, and young girls died as a result. This action is about transparency, responsibility and ensuring no other family experiences what these parents will now suffer the rest of their lives.”
The second lawsuit against Camp Mystic was filed by the parents of 8-year-old camper Eloise “LuLu” Peck.
The lawsuit alleged that the campers and counselors were killed “after, predictably, the river rapidly rose, and floodwaters swept through what Camp Mystic knew was a vulnerable and low-lying area of the Camp.”
“Lulu Peck was among those horrifically swept away and killed,” it continued.
The lawsuit alleged that “these terrifying last moments and then deaths were proximately caused by the negligence and gross negligence” of the defendants, claiming they “knew that Camp facilities were located in a flood zone, knew of the history of flash flooding in Kerr County, knew of repeated prior flood events at the Camp, and received warnings from family members about flood risk.”
The third lawsuit was filed against Camp Mystic and related entities on Monday by the father of Ellen Getten, a 9-year-old camper who died on July 4.
The suit names two additional defendants that were not listed in the multifamily or Peck family suits: William Neely Bonner III and Seaborn Stacy Eastland.
All three lawsuits are seeking at least $1 million in damages.
In a statement to ABC News, Camp Mystic said, “We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God’s healing and comfort.”
Jeff Ray, legal counsel for Camp Mystic, said in a statement, “We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area.”
“We disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well. We will thoroughly respond to these accusations in due course,” Ray added.
At least 138 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including 117 in Kerr County, officials said.
Officials in hard-hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, said that more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.
Regulations regarding the development of summer camps in an area known as “Flash Flood Alley” and flash-flood warning systems came under scrutiny following the disaster.
The catastrophe prompted the state to pass legislation aimed at enhancing safety measures at summer camps and create a grant program to support the installation of early-warning sirens in areas prone to flash flooding.
In September, Camp Mystic announced plans to reopen one site of its summer camp next year. The summer program officials said that Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, a sister site that opened in 2020, will be open in summer 2026, while Camp Mystic Guadalupe River will not be able to reopen by then due to the devastating damage sustained earlier this year.
“The heart of Camp Mystic has never stopped beating, because you are Mystic. We are not only rebuilding cabins and trails, but also a place where laughter, friendship and spiritual growth will continue to flourish,” camp officials said at the time. “As we work to finalize plans, we will do so in a way that is mindful of those we have lost. You are all part of the mission and the ministry of Camp Mystic. You mean the world to us, and we look forward to welcoming you back inside the green gates.”
