California teen mom and newborn missing since Sunday, may be in high-desert area
Los Angeles Police Department via X
(LOS ANGELES) — California officials are asking for help locating a 14-year-old mother, her newborn and her 15-year-old sister-in-law, all of whom haven’t been seen since Sunday night.
Amoria Brown, 14; her daughter Omoria Brown, 3 months old; and Sanaii Brown, 15, were last seen at around 10 p.m. Sunday and were believed to be headed to a high-desert area with family, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The newborn girl suffers from a heart condition and needs daily medication, according to the LAPD.
Amoria Brown is described as Black, 5-foot-4 and about 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was seen wearing a multicolored shirt, gray shorts and gray sandals, according to the LAPD.
Sanaii Brown is Black with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5-foot-1 and weighs about 150 pounds, the LAPD said.
Police ask anyone with information about the teens and newborn to contact the LAPD at 1-800-222- 8477.
(LONGBOAT KEY, Fla.) — When Coast Guard pilot Lt. Ian Logan went out to search the waters off Longboat Key in the wake of Hurricane Milton roaring ashore on the western Florida coast, he didn’t expect to find anyone who needed help.
To all of their surprise, he and his crew found a man clinging to a cooler 30 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We thought it might’ve been a buoy,” Logan said. “I remember looking down and seeing the strobe and like seeing him holding on to the cooler. So once we pulled up in that 50-foot hover right next to the guy, we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s on like a cooler that’s opened up and he’s just floating on it,’ which is insane.”
The man had gone out to his boat early Wednesday to make repairs after it became disabled earlier that week approximately 20 miles off John’s Pass, a barrier island west of St. Petersburg, according to the Coast Guard. As he was bringing the boat back to port, it got disabled again, the Coast Guard said.
The man contacted the Coast Guard, hoping for help. But weather conditions had already started to deteriorate as Milton approached Florida’s west coast, and the Coast Guard said it instructed him to put on a life jacket and “stay with the vessel’s emergency position indicating radio beacon.” The Coast Guard said it then lost contact with the man at 6:45 p.m. ET Wednesday.
By the time he was found, with his boat long gone, Logan said the man was essentially strapped to the cooler.
“I didn’t believe it at first. There are a lot of questions going through my head. So I paused for like, 10 seconds, as we’re making this turn, going to make our approach to the water,” Logan said. “And I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ And the swimmer is like, ‘Yes, he’s waving his hands at us like, this is the guy.’ And I remember all of us are like, ‘My goodness, I can’t believe we’re so excited that we found this guy.’ Like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“I look back over my shoulder and he’s over my back right shoulder and I see this guy — hair looks like the ‘Castaway’ movie, where he’s covered in salt,” he said. “He’s got a life vest on, he’s soaked. And at that point, it really set in, like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe we just found this guy.'”
Logan said the moment was one of the highlights of his career.
ABC News’ Leah Sarnoff and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(AUSTIN, TEXAS) — A 78-year-old man has now been charged with a murder committed over 40 years ago after genetic genealogy helped investigators identify him as a suspect.
Deck Brewer Jr., a man already imprisoned in Massachusetts, has been charged with the 1980 murder of 25-year-old Susan Leigh Wolfe, according to the Austin, Texas, Police Department.
Wolfe had just enrolled as a nursing student at the University of Texas at Austin when she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed on Jan. 9, 1980, according to police.
Wolfe was kidnapped one block from her home while walking to a friend’s house at around 10 p.m. A witness saw a car stop before the driver exited and grabbed Wolfe in a “bear hug,” placed a coat over her head and forced her into the back of the car, police said.
Wolfe’s body was found the next morning in an alley in Austin. Her body had evidence of ligature strangulation and the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
During an autopsy, a pathologist found evidence of a sexual assault by one of two unknown suspects seen in the car, police said.
For a year after the murder, investigators followed dozens of leads and tracked down dozens of cars that fit the witness’s description. Police said over the years they had over 40 persons of interest and conducted interviews with at least six suspects.
In April 2023, detectives submitted evidence related to Wolfe’s sexual assault to the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory, where forensic experts evaluated it and determined it was suitable for testing, police said.
In February, Austin police received the test results — which produced a male profile for the suspect — and eliminated the six suspects who were not a genetic match with the evidence police had, police said.
Police then entered the profile into the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, which operates local, state and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons, police said.
In March, Austin police received a notification for a possible match in Massachusetts, where Brewer is currently incarcerated on unrelated charges, police said.
Detectives conducted a short interview with Brewer in which he said he had been in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, around the time of the murder, police said. Brewer asked for his right to a lawyer when he was told DNA was found at the scene of a murder, police said.
After the DNA comparison was conducted, an Austin court found probable cause to charge Brewer in the murder of Wolfe, police said.
(OCALA, Fla.) — The prosecutor and defense attorney delivered opening remarks Tuesday in the trial of Susan Lorincz – the Florida woman charged in the fatal shooting of her neighbor Ajike “AJ” Owens through a closed door – after a six-person jury was seated on Monday afternoon.
According to a June 6, 2023, statement from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), Lorincz shot Owens, a Black mother of four, through a closed door in the presence of her now 10-year-old son after Owens went to speak with Lorincz about a dispute over Owens’ children playing near her home. Lorincz called 911 after fatally shooting Owens and admitted to the shooting.
Lorincz, who is white, was arrested on June 6, 2023, and charged with first-degree felony manslaughter for fatally shooting Owens on June 2, 2023, in Ocala, Florida. She pleaded not guilty on July 10, 2023, and was held on a $150,000 bond. If convicted, Lorincz faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Ajike Owens’ mother, 10-year-old son share their grief journey on ‘The View’
Anthony Thomas, attorney for the family of Ajike Owens, told ABC News in a statement Tuesday that the family is “disappointed in the all-white jury that was selected to determine the outcome” of this case.
“We would have wanted the jury to be more diverse. But we believe in equal justice, so we are going to see what happens,” added family attorney Ben Crump in a statement to ABC News.
“I am keeping faith that justice will be served for my daughter, Ajike, that the jurors will not let Susan Lorincz get away with this,” Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias, told ABC News.
During opening arguments, public defender Morris Carranza argued that Lorincz was acting in self-defense because she feared for her life, while Assistant State Attorney Adam Smith stressed that Owens was “unarmed” and fatally shot through a “locked” door. Carranza claimed that Owens told Lorincz that she was going to “kill” her, while Smith told jurors that they will be hearing from witnesses who were present during the confrontation who will deny this claim.
“The death of AJ Owens is a tragedy. There is no doubt about that, but what the evidence will show is that in her mind, in her soul, in her core, Susan Lorincz felt she had no choice,” Lorincz’s defense attorney said. “It was either Susan or AJ. Susan chose to defend herself.”
Lorincz’s attorney focused on the age difference between the 59-year-old Lorincz and the 35-year-old Owens, highlighted Lorincz’s health issues and also played for jurors Lorincz’s distressed 911 call on June 2, 2023, where she claimed that Owens tried to “break down” her door and admitted to shooting at the door.
“You can hear the absolute terror that she had,” Lorincz’s attorney said, referring to the 911 call.
New video shows interrogation of Florida woman accused of fatally shooting neighbor
Meanwhile, Smith disputed the claim that Owens was trying to “break” into Lorincz’s home and stressed that Owens, who approached Lorincz’s home to talk to her about the dispute with her children, was “unarmed” and was fatally shot through a “locked” front door after Lorincz called police to come to her home.
Smith argued that Owens “doesn’t try to break into” Lorincz’s home and was shot while she was “unarmed.”
“At the end of this case, you’re going to hear that the defendant Susan Lorincz, knowing the police would come, was in her apartment with her door locked and shot through that locked front door and killed Ajike Owens, who was unarmed,” Smith said.
“After the evidence is presented, we’re going to come back to you and ask that you find the defendant guilty,” he added.
Lorincz claimed in her June 6, 2023, interrogation interview with detectives – video of which was released by MCSO – that she was acting in self-defense when she shot Owens.
“She was saying, ‘I’m going to kill you,'” Lorincz claimed in the video.
“No one that we’ve interviewed so far has made any statements about her saying that she wanted to kill you,” one of the detectives told Lorincz.
Anthony Thomas, an attorney representing the family of Ajike Owens, told ABC News in a statement on Monday that two of Owens’ four children will be called to testify during the trial and are “determined to testify” on their mother’s behalf “despite their grief.”
“Unfortunately, yes, we have confirmed that they will be called to testify. This is an unimaginably painful experience for them, as they continue to grapple with the deep emotional wounds caused by losing their mother in such a violent way,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, Isaac, 13, and Izzy (Israel), 10, who witnessed the shooting, could be called by prosecutors and the defense to testify this week.
“They do this out of profound love and respect for her, knowing that their voices are crucial in the pursuit of justice,” Thomas said. “They understand the gravity of this moment and want to ensure that their mother’s death is not in vain.”
Judge Robert W. Hodges of Florida 5th Judicial Circuit, who is presiding over the case, said that the trial is expected to conclude by Friday.
