Body of mother of four who’s been missing for nearly six months discovered in wooded area
Facebook / Justice for Emily Strite
(NEW YORK) — A mother of four who has been missing for nearly six months has been found dead in a wooded area in Missouri, authorities confirmed.
Sheriff Dave Marshak of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced that the body of 33-year-old Emily Strite, who was first reported missing on April 20, was discovered in a wooded area approximately 45 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri, according to a statement from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office released on Tuesday.
“On September 28th, deputies responded to a wooded area near the 4100 block of Frissell Road in De Soto for a report of human skeletal remains found by the property owner,” authorities said. “Through comparison to medical and dental records, investigators with the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the remains are those of Emily Strite. She was reported missing in the De Soto area in April of this year.”
Detectives said in April that Strite was last seen on foot wearing jeans and a dark blue hoodie on the morning of April 12 in the De Soto area and “is believed to have been leaving the area of her own free will,” police said.
“At this time, Strite’s cause of death is undetermined, and investigators are working to learn how her body ended up where it was found,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.
The investigation into her disappearance and death remains ongoing and there are no reported suspects or persons of interest in the case.
“[Due] to the ongoing investigation, we ‘Emily’s Family’ are asking that nobody visits/disturbs the area mentioned of where Emily was recovered,” Strite’s mother posted on social media after authorities confirmed her body had been found. “Please respect our wishes and stay away from the area. We will share details when they are available.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at 636-797-5515.
A tropical system churning in the Caribbean is forecast to strengthen into Tropical Storm Rafael on Monday as it takes aim at Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and the Gulf Coast.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for Jamaica, where Rafael is forecast to bring heavy rain and mudslides Monday night into Tuesday morning. A hurricane warning has been issued for the Cayman Islands.
Rafael could strengthen to a hurricane by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning as it makes landfall in Cuba with heavy rain, strong winds, flash flooding and storm surge.
Rafael is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm by the end of the week.
By Saturday, Rafael could reach the U.S. Gulf Coast.
It’s too early to tell which parts of the Gulf Coast will see the worst conditions. Everyone from Texas to Florida should monitor the storm’s path.
A new bomb threat prompted officials Sunday at Clark State College in Springfield, Ohio, to close the campus this week and hold classes virtually, the school said.
Clark officials said it received an email of a bomb threat to the Springfield campus on Sunday, a day after it received another emailed threat on Saturday threatening a possible shooting.
“We took immediate action with the Springfield Police Department and they have ensured our campus is secure and safe,” the college said in a statement.
The college said that “out of an abundance of caution,” it will conduct all instruction virtually and close all of its campuses for the week of Sept. 16-20, adding, “We will always prioritize the safety and wellness of our students, employees and community.”
“We understand the anxiety that such incidents can cause and we are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and care,” Clark officials said. “As a proactive measure, Springfield Police will also increase their security presence on campus, and we are working with our wellness team and partners to provide additional counseling services.”
Bomb threats made on Saturday targeted three medical facilities, an unspecified fourth facility and Wittenberg University, a small private liberal arts college in Springfield, officials said.
Wittenberg officials canceled all activities scheduled for Sunday due to a threat that “targeted Haitian members of our community,” the university said in an alert on Saturday.
“Wittenberg University is currently taking extreme precautions following an email that threatened a potential shooting on-campus tomorrow,” the university said in a statement on Saturday.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the FBI “is working in coordination with the Springfield Police Department and Wittenberg University to determine the credibility of recent threats, share information, and take appropriate investigative action. We encourage the public to remain vigilant and to report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”
As a result of the threats, local police conducted sweeps of the colleges and medical facilities targeted and cleared them. Some have already reopened, a police official told ABC News.
Springfield Regional Medical Center, Ohio Valley Surgical Hospital and Kettering Health Springfield were listed by authorities as targets.
The Springfield Police Division has beefed up its staffing as it deals with threats stemming from unsubstantiated claims about the Haitian migrant community.
Two elementary schools were evacuated and a middle school was closed on Friday in the wake of a threat sent via email in Springfield, according to the school district and the mayor.
The elementary schools released students to their parents, officials said.
It’s unclear if the person who sent Friday’s threat is the same person who sent the other threats, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told ABC News.
On Thursday morning, bomb threats were sent via email “to multiple agencies and media outlets” in the city, according to the city commission office.
Explosive-detecting K-9s helped police clear multiple facilities listed in the threat, including two elementary schools, City Hall and a few driver’s license bureaus, Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliott told reporters. The county court facilities were also cleared “out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
The FBI is working with local police to help identify the source of the threat, Elliott said.
The mayor said there’s a lot of fear in Springfield in the wake of the threats.
“This is a very concerning time for our citizens, and frankly, a lot of people are tired of just, you know, the things that have been spread about our community that are just negative and not true. We need help, not hate,” Rue told ABC News on Friday.
The mayor said he believes these threats are directly connected to the baseless rumors spread online in the wake of viral social media posts claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in Springfield in order to eat them. The rumors were amplified by right-wing politicians, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes,” the spokesperson said. “Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”
The mayor added, “Your pets are safe in Springfield.”
Springfield estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county; migrants have been drawn to the region because of the low cost of living and work opportunities, according to the city. The rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care and school resources, according to the city. City officials also said the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance condemned the “baseless and inflammatory” claims about Haitian migrants, arguing they “not only perpetuate harmful stereotypes but also contribute to the dangerous stigmatization of immigrant communities, particularly Black immigrants from the Republic of Haiti.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who dispelled the rumors this week, said the state would send more resources to Springfield.
The mayor stressed, “Anybody on the national stage that takes a microphone, needs to understand what they could do to communities like Springfield with their words. They’re not helping. They’re hurting communities like ours with their words.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(LOUISVILLE, KY) — Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the federal retrial of Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer accused of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend and their neighbors in 2020, when Taylor was shot and killed in a botched police raid.
The initial trial ended in a mistrial last year when the jury reached an impasse because they were not able to reach a unanimous decision.
Hankison was charged in a two-count indictment in August 2022 for deprivation of rights under color of law, both of which are civil rights offenses. According to court documents, he was charged with willfully depriving Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, of their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures, which includes the right to be free from a police officer’s use of unreasonable force during a seizure.
According to court transcripts, he was also charged with willfully depriving Taylor’s three neighbors of their right to be free from the deprivation of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right to be free from a police officer’s use of unjustified force that shocks the conscience.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The trial marks the third trial for Hankison, following the initial mistrial as well as a state trial in 2022, in which he was acquitted of multiple wanton endangerment charges.
U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Jennings last week granted the prosecution’s motion to exclude references to Hankison’s prior court proceedings in the retrial, according to WHAS, the ABC affiliate in Louisville covering the case in the courtroom.
The judge denied the prosecution’s request to introduce evidence of his prior alleged wrongdoing while employed as a Louisville police officer, according to WHAS.
Hankison was one of three officers involved in the raid.
The plainclothes officers were serving a warrant searching for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, who they alleged was dealing drugs. He was not at the residence, but her current boyfriend, Walker, thought someone was breaking into the home and fired one shot from a 9 mm pistol at the officers.
The three officers opened fire, shooting 32 bullets into the apartment, several of which struck Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was in bed at the time.
Hankison fired 10 rounds, none of which hit anyone. He was fired for violating department procedure when he “wantonly and blindly” fired into the apartment. Several of the rounds entered a neighboring apartment where a man, child and pregnant woman were living, according to prosecutors. The neighbors — Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper, and her son, Zayden — were all sleeping at the time of the shooting, prosecutors said.
The other two officers involved in the raid, Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly, were not charged in the incident. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but said the two officers were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Walker.
