Search underway for climber missing at Glacier National Park since Sunday
Getty Images – STOCK/Dean Fikar
(COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont.) — A search is underway for a climber who has been missing in Montana’s Glacier National Park since Sunday evening.
Grant Marcuccio, a 32-year-old from Whitefish, Montana, separated from his party while hiking from Heavens Peak to McPartland Peak, according to the National Park Service.
Marcuccio was last seen heading toward McPartland Peak at about noon on Sunday, but he did not arrive at the meet-up point as planned, the park service said.
Park rangers were told he was missing on Sunday night.
Search planes have flown over the region searching for Marcuccio on Monday and Tuesday, with rangers searching on the ground Tuesday. Helicopters also flew over the area on Wednesday, park officials said.
Marcuccio is described as 6 feet tall with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing about 175 pounds. He may be wearing brown shorts and a brown and white checkered shirt, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — Ernesto has become a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday after hitting Puerto Rico overnight and leaving power outages and flooding in its wake.
The center of then-Tropical Storm Ernesto passed within 40 miles of San Juan, Puerto Rico, early Wednesday, producing strong winds and heavy rain.
More than 695,000 customers are without power in Puerto Rico, according to LUMA, a service provider. The island’s eastern and central regions are the most impacted.
Additionally, 235,000 customers are without water and over 400 people are in shelters, according to Puerto Rican officials.
Officials are asking people to leave their homes only if absolutely necessary. Many villages are completely isolated because of the river levels and multiple routes are closed.
Officials asked people to donate blood due to low resources. Twenty-three hospitals are using electric generators and 80 flights have been canceled.
The storm was moving away from Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning with hurricane-force winds of 75 mph.
The highest rainfall total recorded so far is 9.6 inches in Naguabo, Puerto Rico.
More rain is possible Wednesday morning and into early afternoon before the storm moves out of Puerto Rico.
On Culebra island, east of Puerto Rico, sustained winds of 68 mph were reported with a gust up to 86 mph. A METAR Observation Station at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico reported sustained winds of 48 mph and a gust of 74 mph.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for Puerto Rico and a hurricane watch was in effect for the British Virgin Islands.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico on Tuesday night.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi had warned residents to stay home starting on Tuesday evening, when the tropical storm-force winds are forecast to reach the island. Total rainfall could reach up to 10 inches in some spots.
A flash flood warning was issued for parts of Puerto Rico early Wednesday morning, as several inches of rain already caused flooding. Heavy rain and gusty winds will continue in Puerto Rico into the afternoon as Ernesto moves away from the island.
ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A Connecticut woman was found dead at her home on Wednesday, hours before she was scheduled to be sentenced for killing her husband.
Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi, 76, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in March in the 2017 death of her husband, 84-year-old Pierluigi Bigazzi, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Police found the University of Connecticut Health doctor and professor dead in the basement of the couple’s Burlington home while responding to a welfare check call from his employer, who had not heard from him for several months, prosecutors said.
Kosuda-Bigazzi also pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny for continuing to receive her husband’s pay following his death, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Investigators found that checks from her husband’s employer were deposited into the couple’s joint checking account from his death in July 2017 until the discovery of his body in February 2018, prosecutors said.
Kosuda-Bigazzi’s hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Her death was “not anticipated,” according to her attorney.
“We were honored to be her legal counsel and did our very best to defend her in a complex case for the past six years,” her attorney, Patrick Tomasiewicz, said in a statement. “She was a very independent woman who was always in control of her own destiny.”
Connecticut State Police said they have opened an “untimely death” investigation in the incident.
Troopers responded to her home Wednesday morning after an individual reported at approximately 10:37 a.m. ET that they were at her residence but were unable to make contact with her, state police said.
With help from the local fire department, troopers entered the residence and found Kosuda-Bigazzi unresponsive inside, state police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
No additional details were released by state police.
ABC News has reached out to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice for comment.
Kosuda-Bigazzi had been out on $1.5 million bail while awaiting sentencing.
Police found handwritten documents at the home in which Kosuda-Bigazzi claimed she had killed her husband in self-defense, according to court records.
Bigazzi’s death was ruled a homicide by blunt injuries to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Bigazzi was a UConn Health faculty member in the School of Medicine for over 40 years. Kosuda-Bigazzi also worked at UConn Health from 1986 to 1998 as a science instructor and she then volunteered, helping her husband through the summer of 2017, school officials said.
(NEW YORK) — A teacher in New York City has been arrested and charged after police say he allegedly put a 5-year-old boy in a headlock on Monday, police said.
The incident occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m. inside of PS 153 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Elementary School in the Hamilton Heights area of Manhattan in New York City, according to ABC News’ New York station WABC-TV.
“46-year-old Anthony Wicks was charged with assault and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17, according to police,” WABC confirmed.
The 5-year-old child was subsequently taken to NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center and is expected to survive, WABC said, though no details were given about what injuries the child may have suffered or how severe they might have been.
It is not immediately known what instigated the alleged assault and the investigation remains open.
