Suspect arrested for link to Palm Springs fertility clinic explosion: Sources
(PALM SPRINGS, Calif) — Law enforcement officials are expected to announce the arrest of an individual allegedly linked to the primary suspect in the car bombing outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, last month, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The suspect is expected to appear in a Brooklyn federal court Wednesday afternoon before he’s moved to California, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The primary suspect in the case, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, was found dead next to the detonated vehicle, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s LA field office said last month.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Six people were on board a small plane that crashed into a field in upstate New York on Saturday afternoon.
The plane, a twin-engine turboprop Mitsubishi MU-2B, crashed near the town of Copake around 12:15 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane was headed to Columbia County Airport in Hudson, New York.
Copake is located about 50 miles south of Albany, near the border with Massachusetts.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office has not released any details on the number of fatalities or the identity of anyone aboard the plane, according to ABC affiliate WTEN.
Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore told reporters that muddy conditions in the field where the plane crashed has made accessing the scene difficult, according to WTEN.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was launching a go-team to investigate the crash and would hold a media briefing on Sunday.
(BOSTON) — The former manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue pleaded guilty to stealing body parts from cadavers donated to the Boston institution and then selling them, federal prosecutors said.
Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty to transporting stolen human remains, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
He pleaded guilty during a change of plea hearing Wednesday in federal court in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to his plea agreement.
Lodge, who had managed the morgue for the Anatomical Gifts Program at Harvard Medical School, admitted to transporting and selling the stolen human remains across multiple states from 2018 to at least March 2020, prosecutors said.
While employed by the morgue, he “removed human remains, including organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school,” the U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a press release.
He then took them to his home and, along with his wife, sold them to people in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, prosecutors said. The transactions totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars, according to the indictment.
Lodge’s attorney declined to comment on the case Thursday.
Harvard Medical School terminated Lodge’s employment in May 2023, school officials said following his indictment, calling the activities an “abhorrent betrayal” and “morally reprehensible.” Lodge acted “without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone else” at the institution, the school said.
Several other individuals have also pleaded guilty to interstate transport of stolen human remains in related cases, including Lodge’s wife, Denise Lodge, who is awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said.
(NORFOLK, Va.) — A 21-year-old Navy sailor has mysteriously disappeared in Virginia, leaving her mother desperate for answers.
Angelina “Angie” Resendiz was last seen on Thursday, May 29, at 10 a.m. at her barracks in Miller Hall at Naval Station Norfolk, according to the Virginia State Police.
“This disappearance poses a credible threat to their health and safety as determined by the investigating agency,” police said.
Resendiz, a Texas native, is a culinary specialist assigned to the USS James E. Williams, the Navy said.
Resendiz’s mother, Esmeralda Castle, insists that her daughter “does not miss work. Sick, snow, feeling down, she shows up.”
Resendiz joined the Navy in 2023 after high school “because she felt it was something that called her,” Castle wrote to ABC News.
As a culinary specialist, “She thought that one day she might be able to cook for the president and other world leaders,” Castle said. “She worked really hard on her ship.”
“She’s fun, loving, kind, compassionate, uplifting,” she added.
“People that care about Angie shared with me that the last person she was with was missing with her,” and “that person showed up Monday but not Angie,” Castle said.
“There are no answers for me,” she said. “I just want my kid, she doesn’t deserve to be missing.”
The Navy told ABC News in a statement that it’s “cooperating fully with the investigation.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service said, “Out of respect for the investigative process, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation remains ongoing.”
Anyone with information is urged to call NCIS at 877-579-3648.
