Husband charged with murder of wife found dead in Oregon wilderness
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office
(WELCHES, Ore.) — A man has been arrested and charged with murder after his estranged wife was found dead in the Oregon wilderness.
Michel Fournier, 71, was taken into custody Friday on second-degree murder charges. He is now being held without bail, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
Earlier Friday, Susan Lane-Fournier was found deceased in Welches, a remote part of Clackamas County, after a multi-day search. An autopsy ruled her manner of death as homicide, according to authorities.
Lane-Fournier, 61, had been reported missing one week earlier, on Nov. 22, after failing to show up at work, according to officials.
She was also known as “Phoenix,” the sheriff’s office said.
Officials previously said she was believed to have been in the wooded area hiking with her two dogs.
The two dogs, which had also been considered missing, were also found dead on Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.
Weeks before she disappeared, according to The Oregonian, Lane-Fournier filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The two had been married for 12 years.
(GEORGIA) — Three people have been indicted over an alleged drunk driving crash in Georgia that killed a high school student in February — including parents accused of letting the teens drink before the crash.
Sumanth and Anindita Rao, who are 50 and 49 respectively, face charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and maintaining a disorderly house, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced in a press conference Wednesday.
The car’s driver, 18-year-old Hannah Hackemeyer, faces numerous charges, including vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol under the age of 21.
On Feb. 24, Hackemeyer crashed a car after drinking alcohol at the Raos’ home, police said. She and the Raos’ teen daughter, Ananya, were able to crawl out of the flipped vehicle, but a third passenger, 18-year-old Sophia Lekiachvili, was trapped in the front passenger seat.
Lekiachvili was transported to the hospital, where she died of her injuries, according to police.
Hackemeyer had allegedly been driving more than 60 miles per hour over the speed limit when she crashed, and had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.046, more than twice the legal limit for a person under 21, police said.
According to Boston, the three teenagers had spent the evening leading up to the crash at the Raos’ home, where they drank wine, allegedly “in plain view of Ananya’s parents.”
Shortly before midnight, they allegedly told Sumanth Rao they wanted to go for a drive, Boston said.
“Ananya’s parents knew the girls had been drinking, but they still let them get into a car and leave the house with an open bottle of wine in the front seat,” Boston said. “Less than 30 minutes later, a little more than a half mile away, that decision would prove deadly.”
Boston alleged that allowing the teens to drink was “not an anomaly” at the home of the Raos, who she said had a “long-standing, repeated pattern of allowing teenagers to drink in their home.”
“The Raos’ home was the party house where teens could freely consume alcohol without interference from the adults who lived there — the adults who should have accepted responsibility,” Boston said. “It is a miracle that nothing happened prior to Feb. 24.”
Lekiachvili’s death was a “foreseeable consequence” of the Raos’ alleged permissiveness with teen drinking in their home, Boston said.
“As a prosecutor and a mother of two teenage daughters, I have never seen a more egregious disregard for safety and well-being of young people as I have in this case,” Boston said.
Attorney information for Hackemeyer and the Raos was not immediately available.
(RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Cailf.) — A 7-year-old boy fatally shot his 2-year-old brother after finding a gun in the glove box, according to authorities in California.
The shooting unfolded just before 4 p.m. Monday in the cab of a truck that was in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.
The shooting appeared to be accidental, sheriff’s department spokesperson Gloria Huerta told ABC News.
The boys’ mom had just parked at a shopping center and was outside of the car, unloading items to bring inside, at the time of the shooting, Huerta told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
The investigation is ongoing; once completed, a report will be sent to the district attorney’s office for review, the sheriff’s department said.
The type of gun and its registration information have not been released.
“Gun safety is a huge responsibility, but it is also a moral obligation that we have to our children,” Huerta told KABC.
Hundreds of children in the U.S. unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else every year, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety.
Last year, there were 411 accidental shootings by children — the highest number Everytown for Gun Safety had seen since it began tracking the incidents in 2015.
So far this year, there have been at least 270 unintentional shootings by children, causing at least 99 deaths, according to the organization.
(WASHINGTON) — The homes of multiple Democratic members of Congress in Connecticut were targeted by bomb threats on Thanksgiving Day.
Reps. Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes, Jim Himes, and John Larson all said their homes were targeted on Thursday.
“This morning, I was notified of a bomb threat targeting my home where I was celebrating Thanksgiving with my family,” Himes said in a statement. “Thankfully, after a swift and thorough response from the United States Capitol Police, the Greenwich Police Department and the Stamford Police Department, no evidence of a bomb was found.”
Hayes said in a statement she was notified by local police that it received a threatening email stating a pipe bomb had been placed in her mailbox at home. Police did not find any evidence of a pipe bomb in his mailbox and said there’s no place for political violence in the country.
“State police, U.S. Capitol Police, and the Sergeant at Arms were immediately notified. The Wolcott Police Department and State Police responded and no bomb or explosive materials were discovered and the scene was cleared. At this time the investigation is ongoing. I thank law enforcement for their swift attention to this matter, their actions demonstrate there is no place in our country for political violence.”
Local outlets in Connecticut reported that Larson and Courtney have received similar threats. ABC News has reached out for comment.
Threats against multiple members of Connecticut congressional delegations come following several of Trump’s cabinet nominees receiving threats, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, former Rep. Lee Zeldin, and Pete Hegseth.
It’s unclear, though, if the threats against some of Trump’s cabinet picks are connected to the threats against many of Connecticut’s congressional delegation.
