Search continues for 61-year-old missing hiker, 2 dogs
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office
(WELCHES, Ore.) — A search continued Tuesday for a missing hiker and her two large Malinois-mix dogs believed to be in the Green Canyon Way Trail area of Welches in Oregon, according to officials.
Susan Lane-Fournier, 61, was reported missing after failing to show up at work, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
Searchers looked for Lane-Fournier on Monday in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, covering over 100 miles of trail.
Deputies did not find Lane-Fournier at her residence after she was reported missing by her employer. A community member saw her white 1992 Ford F-250 parked along a road near the trail a day later.
Lane-Fournier, who also goes by the name “Phoenix,” is 5-foot-2-inch, weighs 150 pounds, and has reddish-brown hair.
“Although she is familiar with the area, it is not known if Ms. Lane-Fournier was prepared to stay out overnight. Temperatures in the area have dropped into the 30s with light rain,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Anyone who has seen Lane-Fournier or her dogs is asked to contact the sheriff’s office.
(WALDORF, Md.) — The Charles County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland is investigating an incident where an elementary school student was allegedly found hanging on a hook in a school bathroom, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told ABC News on Monday. The injuries to the student were described by his parents as severe bruising on his neck and face.
The alleged incident took place on Friday afternoon at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School in Waldorf, Maryland.
The parents of the student, whose identity has not been disclosed because he is a minor, spoke out about the incident on the condition of anonymity to protect their son’s identity in an interview with the ABC affiliate in Washington D.C., WJLA.
They said that their son is a second grader in Charles County, Maryland, and is recovering from his injuries.
“[School officials] said that he was choking, so we’re thinking that he was at lunch and he’s choking off of food,” the boy’s mother told WJLA.
In her interview with WJLA, the mother also said that the principal told the family their son was “horseplaying” with a fourth grader in the bathroom and that his jacket accidentally got caught on a hook.
C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School Principal Carrie Burke said in a letter to the community that was obtained by ABC News that the incident occurred while two students were “reportedly horseplaying” in the bathroom when one student’s jacket “got caught on a stall door hook,” and “the student was not able to free themselves and the other student involved was also not able to help them.”
“This student left the bathroom to seek help from staff and reported the incident to administrators. Administrators responded and were able to assist, but staff called 911 for additional precautionary medical support,” Burke added.
Burke claimed misinformation was shared in the community amid confusion over the incident but said that “due to privacy reasons,” she is “not able to share any additional details.”
In her interview with WJLA, the boy’s mother cast doubt on the principal’s statement and is demanding more answers from the school.
“[The principal] said before she got him down, he was foaming out the mouth, unconscious, and it was from horse playing … That doesn’t make sense to me,” she told WJLA.
“I want someone to be held accountable for what happened to our child,” she added.
In a letter to the community, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) Superintendent Maria Navarro said the school district is investigating the incident.
Navarro pushed back against claims that the school district is “covering up” the circumstances surrounding this incident.
“I have seen comments online stating that the school and CCPS are covering up what happened. This is not true. The principal nor the school system are hiding anything. Rather, we are sharing what information we can while we conduct a full investigation,” Navarro wrote in the letter.
“The investigation is ongoing; speculation about what did or did not happen as well as the circulation of misinformation impedes the investigation process,” Navarro said, adding that on Friday the school resource officer filed a preliminary report with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.
Navarro said in the letter that “any student who is found to violate the CCPS Code of Student Conduct faces disciplinary consequences, and it is imperative that we have all the information so that we can adequately address consequences.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance speaks with media at the airport before he departs, Sept. 14, 2024, in Greenville, N.C. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Haitian migrants residing in Springfield, Ohio, shared with ABC News their harrowing experiences of living in constant fear, expressing deep concerns about their safety that prevent them from venturing outside their homes.
In a town of more than 58,000 residents, threats of bombings and shootings led to the closure of city buildings and schools for several days. Wittenberg University canceled all activities on Sunday and classes on Monday as a precautionary measure.
James Fleurijean, a Haitian Community Help & Support Center member, stated that the continual spread of false and divisive statements from prominent politicians was fostering an environment of fear.
“I know some parents like for this period of time they’re trying to keep their children home, like, by the time they see how things gonna be, like, wait for a couple of weeks to see if things that are calm down, or if things gonna escalate,” Fleurijean said. “You see, that’s why, like some parents, they don’t even send their children to school, like, for this week.”
Politicians, including former President Donald Trump, have heightened their fears. At the presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last week, Trump claimed, “In Springfield, people are resorting to eating dogs, cats, and other household pets.”
Trump did not specify the ethnicity of the migrants he claimed were eating pets in Springfield, but on X, his running mate JD Vance continuously raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services.
“Kamala Harris dropped 20,000 Haitian migrants into a small Ohio town and chaos has ensued,” Vance said on X.
Vance appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and informed reporters that Ohio locals have been lodging complaints for at least a year now.
“I have heard firsthand from multiple constituents – people who made 911 calls a month ago, a year ago, who were making these complaints,” Vance said. “I trust my constituents more than I do the American media that has shown no interest in what’s happened in Springfield until we started sharing cat memes on the Internet.”
ABC News spoke with a 28-year-old Haitian man who wanted to remain anonymous. He said he had come to Springfield from New Jersey less than a year ago to search for work. While waiting for ABC News, a passerby yelled “TRUMP” at him, he said.
The man mentioned that he used to see a lot of Haitians on the street, but he doesn’t see them anymore. He believes they are afraid. He mentioned that the Haitian community has felt terrorized.
Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has dismissed the rumors about Haitian immigrants eating pets as nonsense. He says the discussion has to stop and the focus should be on moving forward, not dogs and cats.
“Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in,” DeWine said. “These Haitians came in to work for these companies. They’re very happy to have them there. And, frankly, that’s helped the economy.”
The majority of the 12,000 to 15,000 migrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past four years are from Haiti, according to the city of Springfield. These Haitian migrants left their country due to gang-related violence and poverty, in search of stability, safety, and job opportunities. They came to the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status designation.
(WASHINGTON) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been permanently disbarred from practicing law in the District of Columbia, a court of appeals panel ruled Thursday.
According to the ruling, Giuliani’s disbarment is a resort of reciprocal discipline resulting from his law license being stripped in New York state over his efforts aiding former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
Giuliani’s law license had already been suspended in D.C.
The appeals court panel noted that Giuliani declined to respond when given notice back in July that he could face reciprocal discipline.
In a report issued in July, the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility recommended Giuliani be disbarred, saying that in his capacity as personal attorney to then-President Trump, he committed misconduct by his “frivolous and destructive” efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win through his failed legal challenges to the election results in Pennsylvania.
According to the report, the former New York City mayor violated two legal ethics rules in bringing the lawsuit, which sought to block the certification of votes in the state following Trump’s defeat.
The committee said that one of the rules was violated when he filed the lawsuit in Pennsylvania “when he had no factual basis and no legitimate legal grounds to do so.”
The other rule Giuliani violated was Pennsylvania’s Rules of Professional Conduct, the report said.
“He claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it,” the committee wrote.
