Tire failure suspected in Mississippi bus crash that killed seven and injured 37
Perry Gerenday/Getty Images
(VICKSBURG, Miss.) — A Mississippi bus crash that killed seven people, including a 16-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother, occurred after a tire failure apparently caused the motor coach to run off a road and overturn, authorities said.
The crash that occurred Saturday east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, left 37 people injured, officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board announced the preliminary findings of an investigation into the crash early Saturday near Vicksburg.
“The NTSB, in coordination with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, is sending a go-team to conduct a safety investigation into Saturday’s crash involving a motor coach roadway departure and roll-over after experiencing a tire failure while on Interstate 20 near Vicksburg, Mississippi,” the NTSB said in a statement posted on X.
Six people were pronounced dead at the scene and one person died at Merit Heath Hospital in Vicksburg, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol. The co-driver was not transported to a hospital, authorities said.
Warren County Coroner Doug L. Huskey told ABC News on Sunday that all of the people killed in the incident were from Mexico, including the 16-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother.
Huskey said those who perished in the crash have been identified and that the Mississippi Highway Patrol is expected to release the names of the deceased on Sunday afternoon.
The 2018 Volvo commercial passenger bus was driving westbound on Interstate 20 when it drove off the road Saturday just before 1 a.m. local time.
In addition to the teenager and her brother, three men and two women were killed in the crash, Huskey told ABC News.
The crash is being investigated by the MHP and the Commercial Transportation Enforcement Division.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — The sheriff for Illinois’ Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which employed the former deputy charged with fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home after she called 911 to report a prowler, will be retiring later this month, he announced Friday in a statement.
“As elected leaders, we must always put the overall good of the community above ourselves; and I will not risk the community that I swore to protect. For this reason, I am announcing my retirement as Sheriff of Sangamon County, effective no later than August 31st,” Sheriff Jack Campbell said in the statement.
Campbell was responsible for hiring Sean Grayson, the now-former deputy who has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in custody.
A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force. He was fired from his position with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office on July 17, the same day the charges were filed against him.
Grayson’s job with Sangamon County was one of six different police jobs he held over the past four years.
Prior to his employment with Sangamon, Grayson worked at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office for just under a year. According to audio files obtained by ABC News, Grayson’s then-boss, Logan County Chief Deputy Nathan Miller, expressed concerns over Grayson violating department policy and submitting inaccurate reports while discussing his mishandling of a traffic case.
Campbell previously told ABC News that Sangamon County was not aware of this incident when Grayson was hired. Without knowledge of his disciplinary issues at Logan County, Campbell said that Grayson presented no red flags.
Prior to his time in public law enforcement, he was discharged from the U.S. Army for unspecified “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.
ABC News also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.
In an interview with ABC News last week, Campbell stood by his department’s vetting process and had said at the time that he would not resign, despite calls from Massey’s family for him to step down.
On Friday, he said that it has “become clear that the current political climate has made it nearly impossible for me to continue effectively in my role.”
“Some individuals would rather see our community divided and in turmoil, than allow me to continue serving as Sheriff,” he said. “The health of me and my family, the Sheriff’s Office, and our community has to be my priority.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had called on Campbell to resign over Grayson’s hiring.
“I called for the sheriff’s resignation because the sheriff has failed,” Pritzker said at an event on Wednesday, according to ABC Chicago station WLS. “He has failed to explain how he ended up hiring this deputy sheriff who has been fired from other departments.”
Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Massey’s family, called Campbell’s retirement “a turning point in the ongoing pursuit of justice.”
“Although the pain of her loss is still fresh, Sonya’s family is willing to work with the outgoing sheriff for the remainder of his tenure to help heal the community and achieve full justice for Sonya,” Crump said in a statement. “The Massey family also hopes to work with Sangamon County’s next sheriff to examine how this tragedy happened and to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again in this community.”
Campbell, who was elected sheriff in 2018, told ABC News he was “horrified” following the incident involving Massey.
Grayson, 30, and a second, unnamed deputy responded to her 911 call on July 6 reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home.
Body camera footage shows Massey, who was unarmed, telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.
Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”
Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points to a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”
Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Grayson then shouts at Massey and threatens to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, at which time Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.
Grayson said he feared for his life during his encounter with Massey, according to documents released by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office this week.
“While on scene, I was in fear Dep. (redacted) and I were going to receive great bodily harm or death. Due to being in fear of our safety and life, I fired my duty weapon,” Grayson wrote in his field case report.
Grayson’s defense team was seeking his pretrial release from jail, arguing in a motion filed on Thursday that he is currently under cancer treatment and will not receive adequate care in the Menyard County Jail. They also stated that he does not pose a threat to Massey’s family.
A judge denied the request on Friday. ABC News has reached out to Grayson’s attorneys for comment.
The Menard County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Grayson “is not receiving any preferential treatment, nor being afforded any privileges or benefits not afforded to other inmates of the Menard County Jail.”
(BEAUFORD, S.C.) — A Massachusetts man vacationing with his family in South Carolina has been missing since Friday and is endangered, authorities said.
Stanley Kotowski, 60, was last seen Friday morning leaving his family’s vacation rental on Hilton Head Island, according to his family. He is believed to be barefoot and did not take any personal items such as his phone or wallet, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Kotowski has been struggling with anxiety recently, his family told ABC Savannah, Georgia, affiliate WJCL.
“He had really bad insomnia for about a month. This is like a brand-new thing,” his wife, Jackie Kotowski, told WJCL. “He doesn’t have dementia. His anxiety just kept getting worse and worse and worse and he started to get a little paranoid, and he thought someone was chasing him.”
His son, Zak Kotowski, told WJCL that his father is otherwise healthy.
“He’s a strong person, he’s athletic. He could, even in a delirious state, shoeless, he could get a few towns over,” Zak Kotowski told the station.
Kotowski was reported missing by his family about two hours after he was last seen, according to Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Master Sergeant Daniel Allen. He has been listed as endangered due to his mental state, the length of time he has been missing and because he was last seen on a Ring camera without any shoes on, Allen said.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office continued to search for Kotowski on Tuesday.
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office continues to search for missing and endangered 60-year-old Stanley Kotowski. https://t.co/iKCirBWxl1
— Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, SC (@bcsopio) August 20, 2024
Search efforts have included K9s, helicopters, drones, boats, and foot patrol, the sheriff’s office said. There have been some tips but none that have panned out, Allen said.
“Unfortunately with all the efforts that they’ve been putting out, from literally air, land and water, we have not made contact with him at this point,” Allen told ABC News on Tuesday.
Kotowski’s information has been entered into national databases and sent out to agencies statewide, the sheriff’s office said.
His family said they are not leaving Hilton Head Island without him while pleading for people to help.
“We just want him to come home,” Jackie Kotowski told WJCL. “We need help from anybody who can assist us in finding him.”
Zak Kotowski also had a message for his dad: “We love you. Come home, we just want you home.”
Kotowski was last seen wearing a gray Coors Light T-shirt, dark-colored shorts and no shoes, as captured on a Ring camera footage shared by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. He is approximately 6 feet tall and weighs around 200 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes and a thick Boston accent.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office has asked residents to review their cameras and check their property for any signs of Kotowski. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 843-524-2777.
(LOS ANGELES) — The former Los Angeles police detective convicted in 2012 of killing her ex-lover’s wife was denied parole on Wednesday in the 1986 murder and will continue to serve her 27 years-to-life sentence.
Stephanie Lazarus was convicted of murdering Sherri Rasmussen, a 29-year-old hospital critical care nursing director, who was shot three times in the home she shared with her husband, John Ruetten.
Lazarus was sentenced to 27 years to life after a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder. She became eligible for parole in 2023 after the state of California passed a law giving special consideration to youthful offenders who had committed their crimes when they were under the age of 26.
Lazarus was 25 at the time of the murder.
Commissioner Garland stated that the board had “found good cause to rescind Lazarus’ parole” and would reconvene for further hearings regarding Lazarus.
There will be another chance for parole. Lazarus will be set for another suitability hearing within 120 days.
“The Killer Down the Hall,” a new “20/20” airing Friday, Oct. 4, on ABC at 9 p.m. E.T. and streaming the next day on Hulu, features the story of Stephanie Lazarus, including interviews with the victim’s family and friends.
“It’s definitely, uh, pound for pound, one of the greatest true-crime stories of all time,” Mark Groubert, a journalist who wrote a feature on Lazarus’ LAPD unit for L.A. Weekly, told “20/20.”
Ruetten and Lazarus met at UCLA in the 1970s and had a friendly relationship that involved casual sex, according to Ruetten’s testimony at Lazarus’ trial. Ruetten also testified that he never considered Lazarus his girlfriend. He also admitted to sleeping with Lazarus shortly after becoming engaged to Rasmussen. On Feb. 24, 1986, Ruetten discovered his wife lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor of their condo in Van Nuys, California. He immediately called 911.
The original investigators determined the crime scene at the home that Ruetten and Rasmussen shared showed all the signs of a “hot prowl,” a term police use to describe a home invasion. Investigators strongly believed that Rasmussen was the victim of a burglary that escalated into her murder. She had ligature marks on her wrist, indicating that, at some point, someone had tied her up. She also had three gunshot wounds to her chest, along with a bite mark on her arm.
On the night of the murder, LAPD Homicide Detective Lyle Mayer questioned a very emotional John Ruetten about what he knew regarding the day Sherri was killed.
Ruetten denied killing his wife and agreed to undergo a polygraph examination, but the results came back inconclusive. However, he had a rock-solid alibi, according to the Rasmussen family attorney.
“He was at work that day,” John Taylor, the attorney, said. “He had left work. He had stopped to pick up his dry cleaning and then came back between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. and found his wife murdered in the living room area of the house.”
In the eyes of Mayer, the lead detective, Ruetten was a grieving husband. Investigators said they didn’t feel he was hiding anything, and as far as they were concerned, he was not a suspect — and they told him so.
“I believe your house was burglarized today,” Mayer told Ruetten in the interrogation room. “Once those persons, or that person, or whoever was inside, I believe they were trying to steal your stereo and probably some other items.”
Not long after Rasmussen’s murder, investigators quickly pursued a new lead. Another burglary with a similar M.O. occurred in the same Van Nuys neighborhood.
A woman interrupted the burglary when she came home and found two men in her house, one of whom was armed. They fled, and witness sketches of the suspects were created. Even though the LAPD had these new suspects, there was no evidence directly tying anyone to Rasmussen’s murder. Sherri’s family and friends believed the motive to be personal. Her father, Nels Rasmussen, says he urged the police to investigate a disgruntled nurse Sherri had worked with, as well as Ruetten’s former lover, Stephanie Lazarus, whose name Rasmussen never knew. But the detectives continued to focus solely on the burglary theory.
At this point, detectives said they did not have a single witness, fingerprints, or murder weapon.
The case went cold until 2001, when the Los Angeles Police Department launched the LAPD’s Cold Case Unit. That year, detectives were given more than 9,000 unsolved murders spanning more than two decades, and Rasmussen’s case was one of them.
With new technology and a fresh set of eyes, cold case investigators took another look at the bite mark that was on Rasmussen’s forearm.
Detective Cliff Shepard was the lead officer who investigated the Rasmussen case for the unit.
“Up to that point, nobody else had looked at it other than Mayer and myself, really,” Shepard said. “When I was going back over the reports, they indicate that a bite swab had been collected,” Shepard said. “And when I looked at the evidence… no evidence for a bite swab. So, I checked with our property, they verified they did not have the swab booked with our evidence room. There’s no record of it.”
Shepard sought assistance from Jennifer Francis, a criminalist at the LAPD’s Scientific Investigation Division, to locate the swab, which she traced to a freezer at the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The swab was sent out to forensics for analysis, which returned a DNA profile of an unidentified female but returned no match in law enforcement databases.
The DNA had given police a profile, but it did not provide a name. Even with this new information, the investigator’s theory remained that Sherri’s killer or killers were burglars. By 2005, Shepard had moved on from the Rasmussen cold-case investigation without identifying a suspect, even with the DNA profile.
“My biggest regret is not interviewing Ruetten. Not meeting with him and having a face-to-face,” Shepard said.
The case went cold until 2009 when Detective Jim Nuttall from the Van Nuys division took over the investigation with a fresh set of eyes.
One of the first things Nuttall noticed was the four-year-old DNA report by Francis indicating that a woman was present at the murder. He also thought the stereo equipment stacked by the door was suspicious, leading him to question the burglary theory.
After going back to speak with Sherri’s family and Ruetten, Nutall and his team of investigators compiled a list of five female suspects who were in Rasmussen’s orbit. Three of the five were immediately eliminated – Rasmussen’s sister, mother, and her close friend –after submitting DNA samples. The fourth suspect, a nurse with alleged tension with Rasmussen at her job, also was eliminated.
The fifth suspect was Stephanie Lazarus, Ruetten’s ex-lover from college. Ruetten told Detective Nuttall that he had already given Lazarus’ name to the LAPD 23 years ago. The conversation, however, was never documented.
Four months after reopening the Rasmussen case, Nuttall did something no other officer investigating Sherri’s murder had done: He took a hard look at Lazarus.
The decision was made to have a special surveillance unit follow Lazarus to observe her and obtain a DNA sample. After following her, the unit noticed she had thrown a cup away in a public trash can. They recovered the cup to test the DNA against that from the bite mark.
The DNA matched the bite mark on Rasmussen, providing detectives with the evidence they needed to arrest Lazarus. Lazarus was charged with Sherri’s murder and pleaded not guilty.
In February 2012, 26 years after the murder of Rasmussen, Lazarus stood trial at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life and an additional two years for the use of a firearm.
After her conviction, Lazarus continued to profess her innocence but changed her story in 2023 when she became eligible for parole.
“The only reason she confessed is because she wants to get out on parole,” Teresa Marie Lane, a sister of Rasmussen, said. “We really have to keep her in because she has no regard for what she did. She does not have remorse.”
