South Carolina measles outbreak grows to 15 cases: Health officials
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A measles outbreak in South Carolina has grown to 15 cases, state health officials said on Friday.
The newly identified cases were close contacts of people who were quarantining at home and were not in any school settings when contagious, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health (SCDPH).
“Because they were quarantining before they became infectious, no additional exposures have occurred with these new cases,” the department said.
The outbreak was first identified in the South Carolina upstate region in early October, according to the SCDPH. Several of the cases have been confirmed in Spartanburg County, which sits on the border with North Carolina.
Last week, at least two elementary schools in Spartanburg County sent more than 150 unvaccinated students home to quarantine for 21 days after being exposed to measles. Since then, at least five of the 150 children have contracted the disease, officials said.
In a press conference earlier this week, South Carolina health officials said more than 100 students from Global Academy of South Carolina and Fairforest Elementary are continuing to quarantine at home.
Of the more than 600 students at Global Academy, a K-5 charter school, just 17% have their required immunizations, state health department data shows.
Meanwhile, Fairforest has a vaccination rate of 85%, according to the data. A vaccination rate of 95% is typically considered to be when a location or an area has herd immunity to help prevent outbreaks in communities.
Health officials announced earlier this week that they are deploying a mobile vaccination unit in the county over the next two weeks to provide measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shots for free.
It comes as the U.S. is seeing the highest number of measles cases in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Wednesday, 1,596 cases have been confirmed in 41 states, with more than 90% of cases among those who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
CDC data shows 44 measles outbreaks have been reported across the U.S. so far this year, compared to 16 outbreaks reported all of last year.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two MMR vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC said.
Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.
During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(NEW YORK) — Police in Kansas are asking the public for help in identifying a woman who was seen on surveillance video being taken by force by an unidentified man, according to authorities.
The Wichita Police Department said that the incident happened early Sunday morning at approximately 2 a.m. in the 1400 block of North Volutsia in Wichita, though the circumstances that led up to the abduction are currently unclear.
“At this time, we have not been able to identify the female and male seen in the video,” the Wichita Police department said on social media. “Exploring all options, we’ve reached out to our regional and federal law enforcement partners for additional assistance.”
Authorities also processed the audio and reduced the background noise in hopes that someone will recognize her voice.
The Wichita Police Department is now asking for the community’s help in identifying and locating the female and anybody that recognizes her or might have any information about her identity or whereabouts should reach out to the Wichita Police Department immediately.
(PHOENIX) — Lori Daybell was sentenced to two life sentences in Arizona on Friday for conspiring with her late brother to kill her fourth husband, who was fatally shot in 2019, and her niece’s ex-husband, who survived a failed drive-by shooting that same year.
Daybell was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in two separate trials in Maricopa County this spring. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for each conviction, to be served consecutively, the judge said..
“In the face of such profound damage, a long prison sentence is not merely a punishment, it is a necessary affirmation that our society values justice, protection and the sanctity of human life,” Judge Justin Beresky, who presided over both trials in Phoenix, said before handing down the sentences.
The so-called “doomsday mom” is already serving life in prison after being convicted in 2023 of murdering two of her children. Prosecutors in the Idaho trial argued that she and her current husband, Chad Daybell, thought the children were possessed zombies and murdered them in 2019 so that they could be together. She was also found guilty of stealing Social Security survivor benefits allocated for the care of her children after they went missing.
Similarly, prosecutors in Maricopa County argued that she conspired with her brother to kill her estranged husband of 13 years, Charles Vallow, so she could get his $1 million life insurance policy and be with Chad Daybell, an author of religious fiction books whom she married four months after the deadly shooting.
Prosecutors further said she invoked their “twisted” religious beliefs as justification for the murder and gave her brother “religious authority” to kill Vallow because they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they referred to as “Ned.”
In the first of her Arizona trials, Lori Daybell argued that her brother, Alex Cox, shot Vallow in self-defense in her home in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019.
She was then found guilty in a second trial of scheming with Cox to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece. Three months after Vallow’s killing, Boudreaux called 911 to report that someone driving by in a Jeep shot at his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, Arizona.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Boudreaux continued to live in fear following the failed attempt on his life, wondering if Cox would “return to finish the job.”
Cox died from natural causes later in December 2019.
Motives were money and sex, prosecutor says
Lori Daybell, 51, did not take the stand or call any witnesses in either trial, in which she represented herself. In her closing statement, she argued that her family has been struck by tragedy and that she did not conspire to commit any crime.
In remarks ahead of the sentencing, Maricopa County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Treena Kay disputed Lori Daybell’s repeated claims that this was a “family tragedy.”
“A family tragedy does not involve the intentional killing of a person,” Kay said. “A family tragedy does not involve working with an accomplice to commit first-degree premeditated murder. And a family tragedy does not involve conspiring with others to kill.”
She said Lori Daybell’s motives were the same ones usually seen in murder cases: money and sex, saying that the deaths of Vallow and Boudreaux would have financially benefited her and her niece, respectively.
“Although this defendant denies it, her text messages and her own actions show that these were her motives,” Kay said.
Lori Daybell continued to maintain her innocence in remarks ahead of the sentencing.
“I want everyone to know that I mourn with all of you. I am sorry for your pain. Losing those close to you is painful, and I acknowledge all of the pain, and I do empathize, I feel it, too,” she said. “If I was accountable for these crimes I would acknowledge it.”
She claimed she was prevented from presenting her side in the trials, which the judge said was “not true.”
“When she says that she couldn’t get a fair trial in Maricopa County, that is not the truth,” Beresky said ahead of handing down the sentence.
She also questioned the necessity of additional life sentences on top of the multiple life sentences she’s serving in Idaho. To that point, the judge said, “Justice demands not only recognition of the pain inflicted, but a firm response that upholds the dignity of every victim harmed by the actions of someone who has shown blatant disregard for humanity.”
He said she has “left a wake of destruction” across multiple states and the “amount of contemplation, calculation, planning, manipulation that went into these crimes is unparalleled in my career.”
“Your powers of manipulation are profoundly destructive, one that undermines trust, distorts truth and can erode the very foundations of healthy relationships and society,” he said. “The impact of your manipulation has been devastating, insidious and far-reaching and perhaps still unknown.”
The sentencing hearing comes after failed attempts at getting new trials on both counts. After being convicted of conspiring to kill Vallow, she also unsuccessfully tried to remove Judge Beresky from the case, claiming he was biased against her.
She frequently clashed with the judge while representing herself during the trials. During the second trial, Beresky at one point removed her from the courtroom after she became combative during discussions about her character. The judge had warned that if she referred to herself as having “great character,” that could open the door for the state to introduce evidence to rebut that character, including regarding her previous convictions in Idaho.
Both Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children in separate trials in Fremont County, Idaho. Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, went missing months after Charles Vallow was killed. Their remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search.
They were also found guilty of conspiring to kill Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tamara Daybell, who died in October 2019 — two weeks before Lori and Chad Daybell married in Hawaii. Chad Daybell was found guilty of murdering her.
Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole, while Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the three murders and now awaits execution on Idaho’s death row.
Emotional victim impact statements
Several of Lori Daybell’s relatives addressed the court ahead of the sentencing. In grief-stricken, at times angry remarks, they touched on the loss of Vallow as well as JJ, whom Lori Daybell and Vallow had adopted, and Tylee, a child from Lori Daybell’s third marriage.
Her eldest son, Colby Ryan, from her second marriage, remembered Vallow as a generous man.
“My father, Charles Vallow, cared for his family. He took care of our family, and he made sure we had a good life,” Ryan said.
He said his mother told him Charles Vallow had died from a heart attack, before he learned the truth, and spoke about the pain of losing his father and then his siblings.
“I’m here to tell you the effect that this has had on me. In simple terms, each one of my family members was taken from us all in one swoop,” Ryan said.
Regarding his mother, he said it “must be a very sad life to smile your way through all the pain you’ve caused.”
“Rather than being able to acknowledge the pain that she has caused, she would rather say that Charles, Tylee and JJ’s deaths were a family tragedy and not her evil doing,” he said. “Quite frankly, I believe that Lori Vallow herself is the family tragedy.”
One of Vallow’s sisters, Susan Vallow, said the day her brother died “changed my life forever.”
“My brother’s death was a deliberate act of evil and self-seeking financial gain. Your greed has caused so much pain to this day,” she said virtually.
Kay Woodcock, another one of Charles Vallow’s sisters and JJ’s biological grandmother, read a letter she wrote from the perspective of JJ in court.
“I can’t be here to read this letter, because I am dead. I was murdered by the defendant Lori Daybell, or as I used to call her, mom,” she read. “See, there are a whole lot of tragedies that have happened to my family, and all of them are the result of my mom’s actions.”
Vallow “never would have let her hurt me, and I know he died protecting me,” the letter said.
“I should be 13 years old now, but I’m forever seven,” she read.
At the end of the letter, she screamed at Lori Daybell, “I trusted you!” before breaking down in tears.
Her husband, Larry Woodcock, his anger visceral, called Lori Daybell a “narcissist, psychopath, delusional murderer.”
“You’re nothing, murderess,” he said. “I can’t stand you.”
Following remarks by several members of his family, including his siblings and current wife, Boudreaux addressed how the attempted murder has impacted him.
“The betrayal by someone connected to my family has left me battling overwhelming emotions over the years,” he said, his voice shaky. “I felt fear, paranoia. I lived with constant vigilance, loneliness, regret, sadness, depression, anger, heartache and embarrassment.”
He said he has chosen to forgive Lori Daybell so he can be a better father, husband, son, neighbor and friend. “But I had never seen any remorse or acknowledgement from Lori,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Two Utah police officers were killed and a third was injured along with his service dog when they responded to a domestic disturbance call at a home on Sunday night and were fired on by a suspect inside the residence, authorities said Monday morning.
The shooting unfolded in Tremonton, about 70 miles north of Salt Lake City, Brigham City Police Chief Chad Reyes said at a news conference Monday.
Reyes said the suspect in the shooting, a resident of the home the officers were called to, was arrested and has been charged with aggravated murder. The suspect’s name was not immediately released.
The suspect opened fire on the officers without warning as soon as a second person inside the home opened the front door for the officers, according to Brigham City police detective Crystal Beck.
“Upon arrival, they immediately began taking fire,” Beck said of the officers. “They requested additional units, and then stopped answering their radio.”
Reyes said the two Tremonton police officers died at the scene. Their names were not immediately released. A Box Elder County sheriff’s deputy and his service dog arrived at the scene as the shooting was going on and were fired on while they were still in their patrol vehicle.
Reyes said the wounded deputy was taken treated at a hospital and released. The officer’s service dog was taken to a veterinary clinic and was in good condition, Reyes said.
A motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
Reyes said the shooting highlights the dangers officers face answering domestic disturbance calls.
“We don’t know what we’re walking into. They are one of the most dangerous events we can be dispatched on,” Reyes said. “These officers have been doing this. They took an oath to protect and serve their communities and that’s what they were doing, and they knew the dangers going into this and unfortunately they paid the ultimate price.”
No civilians were injured and there is no current threat to the public, officials said.
