6 people, including teen, found dead inside shipping container at Texas rail yard: Officials
(SAN ANTONIO) — Six people, including a teenager, were found dead inside a shipping container at a Texas rail yard near the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.
A seventh person who was found dead along train tracks in an area outside San Antonio is also believed to have been part of the same group in what is a suspected smuggling incident, authorities said.
The six bodies were discovered Sunday at the Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo, police said. An employee at the rail yard called police after discovering the bodies during a routine rail car inspection, police said.
The victims include a 14-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man from Honduras, as well as a 29-year-old woman and two men — aged 45 and 56 — from Mexico, according to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
So far, the woman has been confirmed to have died from hyperthermia, according to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office, which said it is “highly probable that hyperthermia was the cause of death for the entire group.”
The body of the seventh person was found Monday afternoon near tracks in Bexar County, some 150 miles north of Laredo, according to authorities. The man, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was carrying a Mexican voter registration card, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
“At this point, the prevailing theory is that he’s a resident of Mexico that was among that group that was being smuggled into the country in one of these shipping containers,” Salazar said during a press briefing on Monday.
It is unclear if the man had died while in the shipping container and his body was dumped, or if he died in a fall from the train, he said, noting that the medical examiner will be determining the cause and manner of death.
Salazar said the shipping containers can only be opened from the outside, and that sensors go off when they are opened.
He said the train is believed to have originated in Del Rio, Texas, where the sensor did go off, presumably to load people on. The sensor went off again near where the body of the seventh person was found in Bexar County, he said.
“The fact that a sensor hit from here indicates someone opened that from outside,” Salazar said. “Our belief at this point is that it was most likely smugglers, coyotes that opened it from the outside.”
It is unclear if there were more people on the train who were successfully let out at that point, he said.
Salazar said the train continued on and was split up at a station, with half of it going to Houston and the other half to Laredo, where the six other people were found dead.
One of the people found dead in Laredo is believed to have contacted a relative on Saturday from inside the shipping container, saying in a message that “it was getting very, very hot, and that they were having some physical trouble as a result of it,” Salazar said.
The relative, who lives in a different state, contacted police, and San Antonio officers were dispatched to a location several miles from where the body was found in Macdona and did not find anything, he said.
The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement Tuesday it is “working in close coordination with the Mexican Consulate to facilitate communication with the families of the deceased, ensure positive identification, and assist in the repatriation process as efficiently as possible.”
Homeland Security Investigations and Texas Rangers are also investigating the incident, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Union Pacific said it is “saddened by this incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.”
ABC News’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.
Photo of Richins Family posted on Eric’s Facebook account. (Eric Richins/Facebook)
(NEW YORK) — Kouri Richins, a Utah woman accused of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, who self-published a children’s book on grieving following his death, has been found guilty of murder following a weekslong trial.
The Summit County jury began deliberating late Monday afternoon before reaching a verdict after about three hours. She was found guilty on all five counts, including aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder.
Kouri Richins looked down and remained still while the judge read out each guilty verdict. Her sentencing has been scheduled for May 13.
During closing arguments earlier Monday, prosecutors alleged that the mom of three was obsessed with appearing “privileged, affluent and successful” and killed her husband to help pay the debts of her floundering home flipping business and to get a “fresh start.”
The defense, meanwhile, said the case was “sloppy” and “driven by bias” and argued that the state failed to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Kouri Richins, 35, was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, following a lengthy investigation. Prosecutors allege she spiked his drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl that she purchased illicitly after asking two people for the “Michael Jackson drug.”
“Kouri Richins was a suburban mother, real estate agent. She does not know a lot about the illicit street drug world, but she knows Michael Jackson died from taking drugs,” prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said during closing arguments on Monday. “She doesn’t know how to order a street drug, but she knows she wants the Michael Jackson stuff. She knows she wants it because it is lethal. It is fatal. It kills. And she wanted lethal, fatal death.”
Her charges also include attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors alleging she gave her husband a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.
Kouri Richins was also accused of committing insurance fraud by taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on his life with his forged signature and then submitting a claim following his alleged murder.
She pleaded not guilty and has maintained her innocence.
Her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins, was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined that he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.
Prosecutors allege that Kouri Richins purchased illicit fentanyl pills shortly before the Valentine’s Day incident and again before his death, at which point she allegedly asked for stronger drugs.
‘Downward financial death spiral’: Prosecutor During his closing argument, Bloodworth said Kouri Richins was in “financial desperation” due to her realty company’s debts and needed a significant influx of cash immediately. He alleged she believed she would have financially benefited from her husband’s death — without realizing that his assets were in a trust for their children.
Bloodworth said October 2021 was the “beginning of the downward financial death spiral” of Kouri Richins’ realty business, and that she had a growing debt picture nearing $8 million.
He alleged Kouri Richins intended to cause her husband’s death as early as December 2021, when she was booked a vacation with her boyfriend for April 2022.
“Kouri Richins did not book that trip thinking Eric Richins would be alive in April, she booked it knowing he would not,” Bloodworth said.
Bloodworth referred to evidence that he alleged showed she intended to cause her husband’s death. A witness testified during the trial that in December 2021 Kouri Richins said to her that “in many ways it would be better” if Eric Richins “were dead.” In February 19, 2022, days after the alleged attempted murder attempt, prosecutors said Kouri Richins texted her boyfriend, “If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!”
Bloodworth said Kouri Richins tried to cover up her alleged role in her husband’s death, starting with the 911 call.
“Listen to how she tells the 911 dispatcher where she was when Eric died. She is distancing herself,” Bloodworth said before the call was played again for jurors. “Rather than, ‘He’s not breathing. He has no pulse. I have to figure out what to do. I need help,’ she’s saying, ‘Hey, look, I was not there. I was in my son’s room.’ That’s her alibi. She’s distancing herself from the time and the place that she murdered Eric.”
Bloodworth also said the call shows that the 911 operator asked Kouri Richins to perform CPR on her husband for 6 minutes before she purportedly did. “She is not immediately trying to revive him,” he said.
Bloodworth said Kouri Richins deleted her texts and phone logs with multiple people, including her former housecleaner, Carmen Lauber, who testified about obtaining illicit drugs at Kouri Richins’ request in the weeks prior to Eric Richins’ death. He argued that Kouri Richins was worried about being investigated and her deleted messages in the wake of her husband’s death, as evidenced by searches on her phone such as, “can cops force you to do a lie detector test” and “can deleted text messages be retrieved from an iPhone.”
When the toxicology report showed that Eric Richins died from a fentanyl overdose, Bloodworth argued that Kouri Richins then needed to “explain” the presence of the drug — and that she allegedly planned to do so by claiming she got them for her husband at his request.
Bloodworth argued that Eric Richins did not die of an accidental overdose, citing testimony from his friends and family who said he did not use illicit drugs. He also argued that he did not die by suicide and had “every reason to live” — foremost being his three young sons.
“The evidence proves that Kouri Richins murdered, attempted to murder Eric Richins and that she committed two counts of insurance fraud and forgery,” he said. “The evidence does not support any other explanation.”
Defense argues case had ‘confirmation bias’ Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued during her closing that the case was impacted by confirmation bias from the start.
“Instead of looking at the evidence to determine what happened, the state has, they determined what happened, and then they found the evidence to support it,” Lewis said.
Lewis argued that there was “no evidence” that there was fentanyl in Eric Richins’ drink the night he died and that investigators failed to look into his recent trip to Mexico, which the defense had insinuated could have been the source of the fentanyl, or to test an old prescription bottle that was on his nightstand.
Lewis raised questions about the testimony of Lauber, who testified pursuant to several grants of immunity.
“Carmen Lauber was not able to tell you that she bought fentanyl. She agreed on the stand that it was the detectives that first put the word fentanyl in her mouth, in her head. She was told by detectives in this case that she bought fentanyl. ‘Eric died of fentanyl. You bought drugs. You bought fentanyl,'” Lewis said. “She took that story and she ran with it because she had everything to lose.”
On the affair, Lewis said Kouri Richins broke things off with her boyfriend and they never went on the trip. On the phone searches, Lewis argued that Kouri Richins was worried because she was innocent.
“Of course she’s worried. An innocent person would be worried. Anyone would be worried if they just found out that they are a suspect in a homicide investigation,” Lewis said. “She would have been scared to death.”
Lewis touched on Kouri Richin’s money troubles, acknowledging that the house flipping business was “struggling,” but argued that Eric Richins was “worth so much more to Kouri alive.”
She claimed that Kouri Richins was being judged for how she grieved.
“They want you to look at a woman in the worst moment of her life and to judge her grief,” Lewis said. “There is no wrong way to grieve.”
Lewis told the jury that if they believe Kouri Richins “accidentally obtained fentanyl,” and that Eric Richins then took those pills voluntarily and died, she argued that it is “not aggravated murder” and that they “must find Kouri Richins not guilty.”
On the alleged insurance scheme, Lewis argued that the state has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there was any fraud or forgery.
“The state has not proven their case,” Lewis said. “They don’t have the evidence that Kouri Richins killed her husband, so instead, they have tried to show you as much evidence as they possibly can to convince you she’s the sort of person who would.”
Prior to delivering its closing argument, the defense submitted a motion for mistrial, alleging that the state’s closing was full of “wild speculation,” dehumanized Kouri Richins and inappropriately commented on her demeanor. The motion was denied.
In his rebuttal, Bloodworth acknowledged that much of the evidence in the case is circumstantial.
“People do not video themselves poisoning their spouse,” he said. “But circumstantial evidence is just as good as direct evidence.”
Bloodworth argued that there was “plenty of proof to convict” Kouri Richins based on Lauber’s corroborated testimony. He also argued that much of the defense’s argument is based around trying to explain a letter found in Kouri Richins’ jail cell that prosecutors said appears to outline testimony for her brother instructing him to say that her husband got fentanyl from Mexico.
“All the evidence in this case proves that Kouri Richins murdered her husband, the father of her three children, Eric Richins,” he said. “There is no other rational explanation.”
“And despite all the evidence, Kouri Richins doubles down and blames Eric,” he continued.
Kouri Richins did not testify during the three-week trial and the defense called no witnesses.
During his testimony, the lead detective in the case said that Kouri Richins paid a ghostwriter for her children’s book.
A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three young sons appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote the book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.
Victor Greenawalt, a Citizen Honor Award recipient, poses with his mother in Washington, D.C., March 24, 2026. (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A 11-year-old boy from Minneapolis will be recognized with a Citizen Honor Award in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for helping save a classmate’s life during a mass shooting at their school.
Victor Greenawalt is among this year’s six honorees — five individuals and one nonprofit — for showing “extraordinary bravery far beyond his years,” the Congressional Medal of Honor Society said in a statement. “Instinctively, Victor protected a classmate with his own body, directly saving their life.”
Victor was injured when he used his body to shield his friend from the gunfire at Annunciation Catholic School, according to MPR News.
“My friend Victor, like, saved me though. He laid on top of me, but he got hit,” the friend, Weston Halsne, told Minneapolis station KARE last year. “He was really brave.”
An 8-year-old and 10-year-old sitting in pews were killed and many others were injured when the shooter opened fire through the windows of the school’s church on Aug. 27, 2025. The shooter died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Victor is receiving the young hero award, which honors Americans 17 years old or younger “for their courage in a dire situation,” the Congressional Medal of Honor Society said.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a rendering of the proposed East Wing of the White House while speaking to members of the media onboard Air Force One on March 29, 2026, while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, from West Palm Beach Florida. President Trump returned to Washington D.C. on Sunday following a weekend trip to Florida. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal judge presiding over the White House ballroom case on Thursday clarified his ruling to say that security-related work can go on, particularly below ground, but that work on the ballroom itself still cannot proceed without authorization from lawmakers.
Judge Richard Leon ruled on March 31 that President Donald Trump can’t build the planned ballroom without authorization from Congress.
In addition to issuing Thursday’s clarification, Judge Leon stayed his ruling by another seven days to allow the White House to pursue further appeals.
The revised decision came at the direction of a D.C. Circuit appeals court panel, which ruled 2 to 1 last Saturday that Leon’s initial ruling needed to be clarified.
But in elaborating on the exceptions in his order, Leon also warned the Trump administration that security concerns are not a “blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity,” saying that it is “neither a reasonable nor a correct reading” of his order for the White House to claim that the ballroom is itself part of a security upgrade, as it did in a recent court filing.
“It is, to say the least, incredible, if not disingenuous, that Defendants now argue that my Order does not stop ballroom construction because of the safety-and-security exception!” Leon wrote.
Leon said his revised order would allow for “below-ground construction of national security facilities, work necessary to provide for presidential security, and construction necessary to protect and secure the White House and the construction site itself.”
Trump officials argued that items such as bulletproof windows, missile-resistant columns and drone-proof roofs — features of the planned ballroom — were necessary to enhance security of the executive mansion.
“While these features may well be beneficial, Defendants have not provided any national security justification for why these features must be installed immediately such that they should be excluded from the scope of the injunction,” Leon said, noting the appeals court panel’s own presumption that it would likely take months, if not years, for those upgrades to be completed.
Leon concluded his opinion by saying he has “no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager,” and trusts that Trump and his aides will implement his ruling “in good faith and with the benefit of this clarification.”
Pointing to his latest stay, which is now set to expire next Thursday, Leon warned in a footnote that “any above-ground construction over the next seven days that is not in compliance with my Amended Order is at risk of being taken down pending the resolution of this case.”
The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit court following the judge’s revised order Thursday.
Trump also blasted Leon’s clarification in a social media post Thursday afternoon.
“This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly,” Trump wrote.
Saying that the ballroom project will include “Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass,” Trump claimed that Judge Leon’s ruling means that “no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.”
The White House announced the construction of a 90,000-square foot ballroom in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop the ballroom construction until the project completes the standard federal review process and the administration seeks public comment on the proposed changes to the White House.
