Man dies after being caught in avalanche while snowmobiling
A Utah man was found dead after being caught in an avalanche Sunday afternoon in Lincoln County, Wyoming, authorities said. (Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office)
(LINCOLN COUNTY, Wyo) — A Utah man was found dead after being caught in an avalanche Sunday afternoon in Lincoln County, Wyoming, authorities said.
Nicholas Bringhurst, 31, was snowmobiling in the LaBarge Creek area when he was caught in an avalanche that buried him in snow, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office received a notification from a satellite device reporting an injured person, and Air Idaho was contacted and responded to the area.
“Bringhurst’s friend located and unburied him and initiated CPR,” authorities said. “However, Bringhurst died as a result of being caught in the avalanche.”
Lincoln County Coroner Dain Schwab said the coroner’s office will investigate and determine the cause of death.
“The Sheriff’s Office expresses our deepest sympathies to the Bringhurst family,” officials said.
ABC News’ Tristan Maglunog contributed to this report.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) seal on the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Justice Department officials said in a letter submitted to two federal judges Thursday that they are making “substantial progress” reviewing items related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — but gave no indication when additional material would be released.
The letter said “over five hundred” federal prosecutors and staff members from the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department’s criminal division are reviewing and redacting millions of pages from the investigations into Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The review has found “substantial” duplication in various files, so the estimated number of documents is “in flux,” the letter said.
“Due to the scope of this effort, platform operations require around-the-clock attention and technical assistance to resolve inevitable glitches due to the sheer volume of materials,” said the letter, which is signed by Jay Clayton, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Clayton said prosecutors are working with victims and attorneys for victims to redact identifying information, even if, in some cases, that information was previously public.
“Following a process of conferring with victims and victim counsel about this issue, the Department has confirmed that, to the extent any victim requests redaction of personally identifying information of a document in the DOJ Epstein Library, the Department will redact that victim identifying information even if the document is (or was) otherwise available on a public court docket,” the letter said.
The DOJ faced a Dec. 19 deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress in November passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following blowback the Trump administration received seeking the release of materials related to their probe of Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
Materials released to date include a trove of photographs and court records, including a complaint to the FBI about Epstein that was filed years before he was first investigated for child sex abuse, and documents containing previously unknown details about plans for Epstein’s 2019 arrest — but the files have yet to show evidence of wrongdoing on the part of famous, powerful men, against the expectations of many of those who pushed for the files’ release.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 8, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Yang-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — One year after his arrest on Dec. 9, 2024, the pretrial hearing in the case of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione enters its fifth day in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
Attorneys for Mangione, who is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk last December, are seeking to exclude from trial critical evidence that they say was illegally seized from his backpack without a warrant after officers apprehended him in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s five days after the shooting.
On a slip of paper police said they pulled from his backpack, Mangione had reminded himself on Dec. 5, 2024, to “pluck eyebrows.”
The McDonalds manager who called 911 said her customers recognized the young man seated in the back corner eating a Steak McMuffin and hash brown because of the distinctive eyebrows, which were visible even as a surgical mask and hood concealed much of his face.
On the reverse side of the paper is a crudely drawn map and a reminder to “check Pittsburgh red eyes, ideally to Columbus or Cincin (get off early).” Another reminder said, “keep momentum, FBI slower overnight.”
The piece of paper had not been seen publicly until it was shown during the ongoing hearing at which Mangione’s attorneys are trying to exclude everything taken from the backpack, including the alleged murder weapon, two loaded magazines, a silencer and a cell phone in a Faraday bag designed to conceal its signal.
They argue that officers from the Altoona Police Department skipped steps and violated Mangione’s constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure because they were eager to help crack a big case.
The district attorney’s office said the officers legitimately feared the backpack could contain something dangerous and their search complied with Pennsylvania law.
Nine witnesses have testified so far. Their testimony will help Judge Gregory Carro determine what evidence is allowed at trial and what, if any, evidence should be omitted.
In this June 25, 2018, file photo, an entrance to Fort Bliss is shown, in Fort Bliss, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images, FILE)
(EL PASO, Texas) — Several detainees at a Texas immigration detention facility claim in sworn court declarations that they heard a Cuban immigrant, whose death was later ruled a homicide, pleading for medication shortly before hearing what sounded like guards slamming him to the ground.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died in ICE custody on Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
He is the third detainee to die at the detention center since it opened last year as a tent facility on the grounds of the Fort Bliss Army base outside El Paso.
In an autopsy report released last week, the El Paso County deputy medical examiner determined that Campos died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
Attorneys for the Campos family filed an emergency petition last week to prevent alleged witnesses from being deported. The petition, which was granted by a federal judge, cites reports alleging that guards at the facility choked and asphyxiated Campos.
Some of those witnesses submitted sworn declarations this week alleging that they heard Campos ask guards for his asthma medication on the day he died.
“The guard then said, ‘Shut up or we’re going to make you faint,'” wrote Henry Bolano, a detainee, in English and Spanish. “The last thing I heard was Geraldo speak in a voice that sounded like he couldn’t breathe. He said, ‘Let go of me. You’re asphyxiating me.'”
“Then there was silence,” Bolano wrote.
Santo Jesus Flores, another detainee, said he heard a “struggle ensue” that sounded like “the slamming of a person’s body against the floor or the wall” after Campos asked for his medication.
“I heard Geraldo scream that he could not breathe,” Flores said. “I could hear them trying to revive him, but they could not keep him alive.”
A DHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding the detainees’ sworn declarations.
According to DHS, Campos was detained in July during an immigration enforcement action in New York. He had prior convictions including sexual contact with a minor and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the DHS and court records.
In a statement released following his death, a DHS spokesperson said Campos was pronounced dead after “experiencing medical distress.”
“Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm,” the statement said. “He was subsequently placed in segregation. While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance.”
