3 hikers found dead during search and rescue effort on Mount Baldy in California, authorities say
In this undated file photo, Mount Baldy is shown in the San Gabriel Mountains in California. Matthew Micah Wright/Getty Images, FILE
(SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif.) — A 19-year-old who fell while hiking on Southern California’s Mount Baldy and two others were found dead during the search and rescue effort for the teen, authorities said.
The recovery effort for the three deceased hikers is underway, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday.
The search for the teen began midday Monday, when a search and rescue team responded to a request to rescue the hiker after he reportedly fell approximately 500 feet near the Devil’s Backbone trail, the sheriff’s department said.
A friend who was hiking with the teen “hiked to an area with cellular service and provided GPS coordinates to assist rescuers,” the sheriff’s department said in a press release.
During an aerial search, deputies found the teen as well as two unidentified individuals nearby, though the helicopter was unable to complete the rescue due to severe winds, authorities said.
Later Monday evening, an air medic who was hoisted down confirmed all three hikers were dead, authorities said. The helicopter was still unable to safely recover them at that time due to severe winds.
The recovery effort is still underway, the sheriff’s department said Tuesday.
The name of the teen has not been released. The two unidentified hikers found near him were in a separate group and were located by chance during the search for the teen, according to the sheriff’s department.
Mount Baldy is located in the San Gabriel Mountains, outside Los Angeles.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(CLEVELAND) — A 28-year-old mother has been charged with murder days after the bodies of two girls were found in suitcases in a field in Cleveland, police said.
Aliyah Henderson was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the deaths of her daughters, according to prosecutors.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said the girls were determined to be half-siblings and identified them as Amor Wilson, 10, and Mila Chatman, 8, both of Cleveland.
Prosecutors alleged that Henderson caused the death of her daughters, and their “badly decomposed” bodies were discovered in shallow graves in suitcases.
Cuyahoga County Judge Jeffrey Johnson set her bond at $2 million during her arraignment on Friday, citing the nature of the allegations and “my concern for the safety of the public.” She did not enter a plea.
Detectives began investigating the deaths on Monday, following the “horrific” discovery, according to Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd.
An individual spotted one of the bodies inside a suitcase while walking a dog in a residential neighborhood on Monday evening and reported it to police, according to Todd.
Responding officers located a second body in another suitcase nearby, Todd said. Both suitcases were in a shallow grave in a field near a school, she said.
The manner and cause of death are still pending, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday.
It was unclear how long the girls had been at the location, just that “it was some time,” and that there were no clear indicators of the cause of death, Todd told reporters Tuesday.
“This is a traumatic event for our officers, for the community,” Todd said.
Police said Thursday that the cause of death had not yet been determined.
The investigation led detectives to execute a search warrant at a residence located within a block of the field on Wednesday, where they “recovered substantial evidence related to the case,” the Cleveland Division of Police said.
A person of interest was detained on Wednesday, with Cleveland Police Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz telling reporters it was a “significant break” in the case.
Todd said in a statement Thursday that “careful and methodical work” in the case “allowed our detectives to develop the evidence needed to make quick identification of a person of interest, ultimately resulting in an arrest.”
A child located inside the searched home has been taken into custody by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services, police said. The child appeared to be in good health, police said.
Bill Gates watches the Women’s Singles Final at the 2026 Australian Open, January 31, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. (James D. Morgan/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft founder Bill Gates is speaking out publicly for the first time since the latest release by the Department of Justice of nearly three million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, saying he was “foolish” to spend time with the late convicted sex predator.
In an interview with 9News Australia, Gates denied any wrongdoing involving Epstein, including unfounded allegations made against the tech billionaire in draft emails Epstein wrote in 2013 that were included in the latest tranche of documents released by the DOJ on Friday.
“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. Ah, that email was never sent. The email is false,” Gates said in the interview, conducted in Australia and broadcast on Wednesday. “So, I don’t know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me that every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize I did that.”
Gates, 70, spoke out after his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, said in an interview with NPR’s Wild Card podcast, set to air on Thursday, that Bill Gates and other wealthy men named in the Epstein files should answer questions about their association with him.
“Whatever questions remain there … those questions are for those people, and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me,” French Gates said in an excerpt of the interview released by NPR.
French Gates, who finalized her divorce from Bill Gates in 2021, said the details in the latest tranche of files made public brought back memories of “some very, very painful times” in her marriage. She has previously said that her ex-husband’s association with Epstein was one factor of many that led her to seek their divorce.
In the interview with 9News Australia, Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011, which was after Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Gates said he thought Epstein could introduce him to other wealthy people who might donate to the Gates Foundation, which has donated billions of dollars globally to “improve health, alleviate extreme poverty, and advance gender equality,” according to its website.
“It’s factually true that I was only at dinners. I never went to the island, I never met any women,” Gates said of his association with Epstein, referring to the latter’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein allegedly sexually exploited dozens of young women and girls. “And the more that comes out, the more clear it will be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.”
“The focus was always he [Epstein] knew a lot of very rich people and he was always saying he could get them to give money to global health,” Gates added. “You know, in retrospect, that was a dead end, and I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”
Asked by ABC about the latest DOJ disclosure in the Epstein case, a spokesperson for Bill Gates said, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
Gates was in Australia partly for vacation and partly on behalf of the Gates Foundation to encourage the Australian government to commit more funds to eradicating preventable childhood diseases.
Ballots are counted on election night at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operation Center on November 5, 2024 in Fairburn, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for the Trump administration will face serious questions for the first time on Friday about the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site.
Fulton County officials have argued the FBI “intentionally or recklessly omitted material facts” about purported discrepancies in the 2020 election in Georgia to secure a warrant for the materials, and a federal judge is considering a request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records.
“Despite years of investigations of the 2020 election, the [search warrant] affidavit does not identify facts that establish probable cause that anyone committed a crime,” lawyers for the Fulton County officials wrote in court filing. “The Affiant failed to include facts — including from the very sources he cited — that shut the door on even the faintest possibility of probable cause.”
U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, scheduled a six-hour evidentiary hearing for Friday to determine whether the Trump administration showed “callous disregard” for constitutional rights by executing the controversial search earlier this year.
After election officials raised concerns about the basis for the January 2026 search, Judge Boulee last month ordered the Department of Justice to publicly release the application for the warrant, which revealed that the investigation was triggered by an attorney and close ally of President Trump who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
According to the unsealed court records, the investigation centers on long-debunked allegations of voter fraud that have already been thoroughly investigated.
Fulton County election officials have since pushed for the return of the records, arguing that the investigation focuses on “human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election … without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”
“The Affidavit omits numerous material facts — including from the very reports and publicly-disclosed investigations that the Affiant cites — that confirm the alleged conduct was previously investigated and found to be unintentional,” attorneys for the Fulton County officials argued.
Lawyers for the Trump administration have pushed back on the request, highlighting that the search was approved by a magistrate judge and arguing that the lawsuit was a “way to get a sneak peek at ongoing criminal investigations.”
“Petitioners’ attempt to turn a semantic dispute into a deliberate falsehood (with no citation to any offer of proof on this issue) is beyond the pale. And given the other evidence, probable cause would easily exist without the County’s admissions,” DOJ lawyers argued in court filings.
In a late setback ahead of Friday’s hearing, Judge Boulee quashed an attempt to force the FBI agent behind the search warrant to testify, concluding that questioning the agent could reveal “process and scope of the DOJ’s investigation,” which remains ongoing.
President Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election results in Georgia, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election.
Through a call with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — who was present at the January raid — President Trump personally addressed some of the agents who conducted the search and told them they were doing great work by investigating Georgia’s elections, ABC News previously reported.
“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited,” Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this month when asked about her presence at the search. “It is my role based on statute that Congress has passed to have oversight over election security to include counterintelligence.”
