Freight train carrying flammable liquids derails in Connecticut, prompting shelter in place: Officials
In this photo released by the Norwich Fire Department, a train derailment is shown in Mansfield, Conn., on Feb. 5, 2026. (Norwich Fire Department)
(MANSFIELD, Calif.) — A freight train carrying flammable liquids derailed in Connecticut on Thursday, prompting a shelter-in-place advisory, officials said.
Approximately 14 railcars of a New England Central Railroad (NECR) train went off the tracks shortly after 9 a.m. in Mansfield near a body of water, fire officials said.
Six railcars carrying liquid propane went fully off the track, with four ending up in water, officials said.
Other derailed cars were carrying liquified natural gas and cooking grease, according to Mansfield Fire Chief John Roache.
The derailment occurred along the Willimantic River, near Eagleville Lake, according to NECR.
Air monitoring has not detected any flammable leaks from any of the train cars, Roache said during a press briefing Thursday. An NECR spokesperson also said there is no indication of any leaks.
Richard Scalora, a supervising emergency response coordinator with the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said his staff is working on several of the railcars to “assure that we don’t have any releases.”
“We’re going to continue in this position until all the rail cars are back on their wheels and safely removed from the area,” he said during the press briefing.
All residents within a half-mile of the area have been advised to shelter in place out of an abundance of caution, due to concerns over a potential natural gas leak, officials said.
No injuries have been reported, according to an NECR spokesperson.
“First responders are on scene with NECR managers to assess the situation,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Emergency response contractors are also en route to assist with an expeditious cleanup.”
The cleanup is anticipated to take several days due to the hard-to-reach location, with crews working to gain access to the site and bring in cranes, according to Roache.
“It’s not going to be a today operation,” he said. “We’re definitely taking it slow and methodical.”
Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said he will be issuing an emergency declaration later Thursday, calling it a “very serious event.”
“We are blessed with natural resources in this community that we want to safeguard, and certainly potential hazardous waste spill is a serious concern,” he said during the briefing. “Fortunately, right now, it appears that the situation is under control and the public health and safety is being maintained.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said he is in touch with “our state emergency management and environment teams to assess any impacts regarding the train derailment involving hazardous materials in Mansfield.”
Morgan Geyser booking photo, Nv. 23, 2025. Posen Village Police Department
(POSEN, Ill.) — “Slender Man” stabbing assailant Morgan Geyser is scheduled to appear in an Illinois courtroom on Tuesday for a hearing in which prosecutors are expected to request that she be extradited to Wisconsin, where she allegedly fled a group home over the weekend.
The 23-year-old Geyser’s court appearance comes a day after the Wisconsin district attorney, whose office prosecuted her in the high-profile 2014 stabbing case, called on the state Department of Health Services to send her back to a mental institution.
A Wisconsin judge signed an order in September allowing Geyer a conditional release from a psychiatric facility, where she had been held for a decade, to a group home in Madison. At the time, prosecutors objected to her conditional release, alleging she had “violent” communication with a man outside the facility and had read a book in the facility with “themes of sexual sadism and murder.”
As part of the conditions of her release, Geyser was ordered to wear an ankle monitoring device.
On Saturday night, Geyser allegedly cut off her monitoring device and bolted from her group home with a 43-year-old person she told authorities she met a couple of months ago at a church event, according to a criminal complaint.
Following a massive search, Geyser and her companion were captured on Sunday night at a Posen, Illinois, truck stop, more than 165 miles from Geyser’s group home.
Geyser’s companion, identified by the Posen Police Department as Chad Mecca of Madison, was charged with criminal trespassing and obstructing identification, police said. Mecca was released on a citation and notified to appear in court on Jan. 15.
Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese, whose office prosecuted Geyser in the 2014 stabbing case, expressed her hope that the state Department of Health Services, which has custody of Geyser, will file a petition to revoke the conditional release she had been granted.
“When we learned of Morgan’s escape over the weekend, it unfortunately validated the concerns we have raised from the very beginning,” Boese said. “We have been consistently and adamantly opposed to her release because her conduct has repeatedly demonstrated she poses a risk to the community.”
Boese added, “Her alleged actions this weekend only reinforce our position that a conditional release is unsafe and unacceptable.”
But attorney Anthony Cotton, who represented Geyser in the stabbing case, told ABC News correspondent Juju Chang on Monday that Geyser does not present a danger to her victim, the public, or to herself.
“The question becomes, going forward, is she still a risk to society? And I stand by every word of what I’ve said earlier. She is not a violent risk to others. I don’t believe that she is. And that’s why we found out that during her time out, she engaged in no violence whatsoever and had no weapons on her,” Cotton said.
Cotton said he hopes Geyser will be allowed to go back to a community group home.
“It will certainly present complications because we’re gonna have to go back to court eventually to try to get Morgan back into a community group home,” Cotton said. “So definitely this is not a good development and something that’s gonna have a negative impact on the work we do. It’s a setback.”
Geyser and another girl, Anissa Weier, were charged as adults and pleaded guilty to stabbing a classmate, Payton Leutner, 19 times in 2014, when they and the victim were 12 years old. Geyser and Weier, who were both prosecuted as adults, claimed they committed the attack on Leutner to appease “Slender Man,” a faceless, fictional internet-based character that garnered a cult-like following.
Geyser pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted intentional homicide and was sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2018. Geyser was later found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and was sentenced to up to 40 years in a psychiatric institution.
Weier was also found not guilty by mental disease or defect after pleading guilty to a lesser charge. She was sentenced to up to 25 years in a psychiatric institution. In 2021, at the age of 19, Weier was granted supervised release.
Waters of Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, August 5, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
(MONTEREY, Calif) — A body has been discovered near where a swimmer who may have been attacked by a shark went missing last week, officials in California said in an update on Sunday.
The woman’s body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
Due to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, the agency said it is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery.
The swimmer — who was identified by officials as 55-year-old Erica Fox — was reported missing just after noon on Dec. 21 at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove in Monterey Bay, according to a joint statement from the Coast Guard and the cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey.
Fox’s father confirmed to ABC’s Santa Cruz affiliate KSBW on Sunday that family members identified the body as Fox, based on the clothing she was wearing.
Fox was wearing a shark deterrent anklet when she disappeared, family members said, according to KSBW.
After her disappearance, two witnesses said the swimmer “may have encountered a shark,” the statement said. One person reported seeing a shark with a body in its mouth before it submerged, a Coast Guard official said.
A decision to suspend the search last week was made following a total of more than 15 hours of search operations covering an area of more than 84 square nautical miles, according to officials.
Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove and McAbee Beach and San Carlos Beach in Monterey were closed through Tuesday, the officials said.
ABC News’ Tristan Maglunog and Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
In this handout, the mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019. (Kypros/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Friday released another batch of photographs obtained from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, including some never-before-seen images of Epstein with famous men whose connections to the deceased sex offender have previously been reported.
The disclosure by the committee Democrats includes images of Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Woody Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, former Prince Andrew and billionaire Richard Branson, among others.
The context, time frame and location of the photographs are unclear.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee. “We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
The 19 photos made public are from a cache of more than 95,000 photos turned over to the committee by the Epstein estate in response to a subpoena, the committee Democrats said in a press release.
Other images under review by the committee include thousands of photos of women and Epstein properties, according to the release.
The images come from the hard drive of one of Epstein’s personal computers and one of his email accounts, according to the committee Democrats.
The disclosure includes a rare image of Bill Clinton with both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. In the photo a smiling Clinton stands in the middle of a group of five people, with Maxwell and Epstein on the right and another unidentified woman and man on the left. The photo includes what appears to be Clinton’s signature.
Vanity Fair magazine previously published an image of Epstein with Clinton that was said to be taken aboard Epstein’s jet in 2002. That photo was credited by the magazine to one of Epstein’s assistants. Epstein and Maxwell were previously seen greeting then-President Clinton in a 1993 photo at a White House event for donors to the nonprofit White House Historical Association. That picture was found in the archives at the Clinton Presidential Library.
Three of the photos show Donald Trump, though Epstein himself appears in only one. That picture appears to be from a 1997 Victoria’s Secret event in New York, and shows Epstein next to Trump as he talks with one of the models at the event. Other photos from that party have been public for years.
Another photo shows Trump seated on an airplane next to a woman -apparently and adult — whose face is covered with a black box. In the third photo, a black and white image shows Trump in the center of a photo with six women, who all appear to be adults and whose faces are also redacted. That image appears to be from a public event, though the location and timeframe are not known.
A spokesperson for the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee criticized the Democrats’ for “cherry-picking” photos to malign President Trump.
“Once again, Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Oversight Committee Democrats are cherry-picking photos and making targeted redactions to create a false narrative about President Trump,” the spokesperson said. “We received over 95,000 photos and Democrats released just a handful. Democrats’ hoax against President Trump has been completely debunked. Nothing in the documents we’ve received shows any wrongdoing. It is shameful Rep. Garcia and Democrats continue to put politics above justice for the survivors.”
Among the famous men pictured with Epstein in the newly disclosed photos are titans of Hollywood, business, academia and politics.
Appearance of these men in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing.
In one image, a casually-dressed Epstein is seen chatting with director Woody Allen on what looks like a film set. Allen sits in a director’s chair peering intently at Epstein who appears to be looking at a video monitor.
Allen appears in three other photos: aboard an airplane with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and his wife, seated at a table with Epstein and a woman whose face is covered with a black box, and chatting with political strategist Steve Bannon, who worked for President Trump during his first administration.
There’s a selfie photo of Bannon with Epstein, apparently taken by Epstein on a mobile phone as the pair stand in front of a mirror, and another of Bannon sitting across from Epstein at a desk.
Billionaire Richard Branson appears in one image, seated outdoors with another man with Epstein standing behind. The smiling men appear to be sharing a chuckle as Branson holds up a page from a notebook. A large black box covers whatever it is that is on the notebook page.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates is shown in two photos, though Epstein is not present in either. One photo shows Gates with the former Prince Andrew, both in suit and tie, gazing at each other in a dark paneled room with other people in the background. Another shows Gates standing next to Larry Visoski, Epstein’s longtime private pilot, beside what appears to be Epstein’s black Gulfstream jet. Gates, in a gray pullover sweater, has books under his arm and a leather briefcase in his hand.
The disclosure by the House Democrats also includes three photos depicting apparent sexual paraphernalia; no people are in those images and the context of the images is unclear.
Another image shows what appears to be a joke or a novelty gift item, a likeness of Trump on what appears to be a condom wrapper that says, “I’m HUUUUGE!”
“Trump Condom, $4.50, FINALLY,” reads a handwritten sign.
