Woman arrested after bodies of 2 girls found in suitcases in Cleveland field: Police
(CLEVELAND) — A 28-year-old woman has been arrested days after the bodies of two girls were found in suitcases in a field in Cleveland, police announced Thursday.
The Cleveland Division of Police did not say what charges the suspect was arrested on in connection with the suspected homicides, noting that the woman is expected to be formally charged later Thursday. Her name will be released at that point, police said.
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.
One of the girls is suspected to have been between the ages of 8 1/2 and 13, and the second between 10 1/2 and 14, Todd said. They have been determined to be half-siblings, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday.
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.
The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, and the medical examiner’s office is continuing to work to officially identify the children, police said Thursday.
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.
The Hookers’ boat, “Soulmate,” is seen in Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, April 8, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Brian Hooker, whose wife was reported missing in the Bahamas after going overboard on a dinghy, told ABC News he is staying on the island with his “sole focus” on finding her.
Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, has been missing for over a week. She and Brian Hooker, 58, had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, when bad weather caused Lynette Hooker to fall overboard, her husband told authorities.
Brian Hooker was arrested on Wednesday and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Hooker described being in police custody as “hell.”
“It was a little different chapter of hell in a giant hell that I’m in,” he said, overcome with emotion.
He told ABC News on Tuesday morning that he will stay in the Bahamas until his visa runs out.
He said his “only focus is to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
“I want you to know Lynette and I loved each other the most — we’ve been together almost half our lives,” Brian Hooker said. “My sole focus is finding Lynette, no matter how likely or unlikely that is. This search for Lynette has been interrupted by the investigation. I understand that investigations have to take place, but I’m going as soon as I can to start finding Lynette.”
Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.
When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”
“I’m going to keep going. I’m not leaving until I’m told to leave or convinced that it’s fruitless,” he said.
Former President Bill Clinton and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrive prior to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump at the United States Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Melina Mara – Pool/Getty Images)
(CHAPPAQUA, N.Y.) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee in Chappaqua, New York, has been paused Thursday afternoon after a photo of her from inside the room was leaked, which is against committee rules.
The photo was posted by conservative social media influencer Benny Johnson who claimed it was provided by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert.
The former first lady and former President Bill Clinton are participating in depositions as part of the committee’s probe into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on September 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. Colin Gray is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children after his son opened fire and killed 4 at the high school on Wednesday. (Photo by Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)
(GEORGIA) — In often tearful and painful testimony, students wounded in a 2024 mass shooting at a Georgia high school took the witness stand on Tuesday in the murder trial of the alleged gunman’s father.
As the defendant, 55-year-old Colin Gray, sat just feet away listening, the students recounted the horror they endured on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, allegedly at the hands of Gray’s then 14-year-old son, Colt.
Judge Nicholas Primm, who is presiding over the case, ordered the media not to show the students’ faces during the televised trial. The defense did not cross-examine any of the students who testified.
All of the students who testified Tuesday said they were in algebra teacher Cassandra Ryan’s class when they heard a loud bang outside their classroom door.
“I remember standing up and turning my back towards the door, and that’s when I saw him, Colt. He was pointing the weapon, just aiming anywhere, I guess,” testified Melany Delira-Castaneda, who was a freshman at the time of the shooting.
The now 16-year-old girl testified that she didn’t realize she had been shot until after the gunshots subsided.
“I remember standing up and I turned around. I didn’t know I was shot, but I was. My body was telling me to hold my arm, so I was holding my arm,” Delira-Castaneda testified. “I think I was just in shock and scared.”
She said she was shot in the shoulder.
“I feel like just seeing a lot of what I saw that day, it just sticks with me, and not being able to trust certain people,” Delira-Castaneda told the court.
Prosecutors called the students to testify in an effort to show what Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith described in his opening statement as the “horrific consequences” of the alleged actions or inaction Colin Gray took with his son leading up to the shooting.
Gray is the latest parent that prosecutors in various U.S. states have attempted to hold criminally culpable for their children’s alleged deadly actions.
The father is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Gray’s son, Colt, now 16, has been charged as an adult and is awaiting a separate trial on multiple counts of felony murder and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not guilty.
Killed in the shooting were math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53; and students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, officials said.
Angulo was also in Ryan’s class when he was shot and killed.
“This case is about this defendant and his actions – his actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that his child was going to harm others,” Smith said in his opening statement on Monday.
Prosecutors allege that despite repeatedly being warned about his son’s mental deterioration and that he was a danger to himself and others, Colin Gray gave the boy an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas present and allowed him to keep the weapon propped against a wall in his bedroom. The rifle, prosecutors allege, was used in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School.
Nautica Walton, another student in Ryan’s algebra class on the day of the shooting, testified on Tuesday that when she heard a loud bang outside the classroom door, “I realized something was wrong.”
“I remember my teacher falling to the floor, and then Taylor, [a student] in front of me, I remember seeing her fall down before I turned around and saw there was somebody at the door with a weapon,” Nautica, now 16, testified.
She told the court that she got on the ground next to Melany Delira-Castaneda.
“I remember Melany, she had blood all on her arm. I remember her blood was getting on the side of me because I was lying on the side of her,” Walton testified.
Walton further testified that she was shot in the leg during the episode and recalled going in and out of consciousness.
“I remember my teacher telling me to stay awake because I was feeling really tired,” Walton said on the witness stand. “I remember Natalie [another student] lying on the floor, saying she was hit and crying with a big puddle of blood,” said Walton, adding that a classmate took off her jacket and wrapped it around her leg.
“And then I passed out after that,” she testified.
Walton also told the court that since the shooting, she has been unable to play sports and has been “very paranoid.”
“I don’t like being in front of doors at school. I don’t use the bathroom at school,” testified Walton, adding that she had nightmares for months after the shooting.
Student Taylor Jones, now 16, testified that when she realized she had been shot in the leg, she asked a classmate to hold her hand “because I was scared.”
She told the court that she remembers being on the classroom floor before she passed out and then waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where she was flown to by a medical helicopter.
Jones, a one-time volleyball player on her school team, told the court that she has since undergone multiple surgeries and has been unable to play sports.
Natalie Griffith, now 16, recalled to the court looking down at her hand during the shooting and seeing a hole and blood near her wrist.
“I didn’t know this at the time, but I had another one up on my shoulder,” she testified of a second bullet wound. “I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem.”
Griffith told the court that as she was being carried out of the classroom, she saw Colt Gray on the floor being detained with his hands behind his back.
“I said a lot of curse words. I was very angry at the time because I thought they were going to have to amputate my hand,” Griffith testified. “I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids.”
Jaxxon Beaver, 16, another student in the algebra class, testified that he was also shot in the leg.
“I noticed that when I was hurt, I looked down and saw a hole in my shorts and noticed I was bleeding,” Beaver said on the stand.
Beaver further testified that he was unable to go to school for at least three months after the shooting, and eventually gave up on going back.
“Every time I went back to school, I would feel like something bad was going to happen again. I couldn’t wait and had to go home, like right after,” Beaver testified.
Ronaldo Vega, now 16, recalled to the court seeing Colt Gray at the door wearing yellow gloves and firing a rifle that had a scope.
“He shot, I don’t know how many times. I went down to duck,” Vega testified.
Vega testified that when the shooting stopped, he barricaded the classroom door with desks and chairs. He said he saw Christian Angulo curled up on the floor motionless near the door.
“A girl was screaming that he was dead,” Vega told the court.
