Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(MIAMI) — A tree trimmer died after getting caught in a wood chipper while trimming trees at a town hall near Miami, officials said.
The incident occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning when the Ocean Ridge Police Department responded to Ocean Ridge Town Hall — some 60 miles north of Miami — for “an accident involving one employee from a contracted tree trimming vendor,” according to a statement from the town of Ocean Ridge on social media.
“Upon arrival, Ocean Ridge officers found one person had died from injuries sustained in the accident,” officials said. No other individuals on scene sustained injuries.
Officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were immediately notified and were en route to the scene, according to the town of Ocean Ridge.
The identity of the victim has not yet been disclosed by authorities.
The investigation is currently ongoing at this time and Boynton Beach Fire Rescue is providing grief counseling to town employees and vendor staff, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is due back in court Tuesday when his attorney will attempt to convince a judge to invalidate certain DNA evidence that’s never been used in New York state courts.
Heuermann, who was arrested in July 2023, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
His attorneys have urged the judge to preclude evidence pertaining to nuclear DNA results obtained from hairs recovered from six victims: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The DNA match resulted from a technique known as whole genome sequencing, which hasn’t been subject to an admissibility hearing in any New York court.
Prosecutors consented to Tuesday’s hearing but have argued the defense motion to dismiss the evidence should be denied because the technique is “generally accepted in the scientific community” and is based on technology “relied upon in a wide variety of scientific and forensic settings.”
Defense attorney Michael Brown has said the California lab where the DNA testing was done is a for-profit business that is not accredited in New York.
Prosecutors have expressed confidence the DNA evidence would be admissible.
“For over thirty years, New York State courts have continuously adapted to embrace advancements in DNA technology,” assistant district attorney Andrew Lee said. “The advancement of forensic science and nuclear DNA analysis involving Whole Genome Sequencing has allowed law enforcement to now link genetic profiles consistent with the defendant, and/or individuals who have resided with him, to six of the seven victims through hairs found at the crime scene and/or on the victims. The People intend to introduce such evidence of defendant’s guilt at trial, which will aid the jury in its determination.”
In addition to DNA, prosecutors are also relying on evidence recovered on some of the 350 electronic devices seized from Heuermann that they’ve said include his “significant collection of violent, bondage and torture pornography” dating back to at least 1994. This online collection included images of mutilation and tying up women with ropes, two things prosecutors said are consistent with injuries inflicted on Mack and how she was bound.
Who killed JonBenét Ramsey? The all-new ABC News interview with JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, airs during 20/20 – premiering Friday, Nov. 13th on ABC Network.
(NEW YORK) — Advancements in DNA technology and a surge of public interest are rekindling hope for breakthroughs in the long-unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, a case that has remained a haunting mystery for nearly 28 years.
As new techniques emerge and fresh attention is drawn to the evidence, many are eager for answers that could finally bring closure to this tragic story.
JonBenét, who was found dead in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home in 1996, remains frozen in time. Her father, John Ramsey, has endured nearly three decades without justice, answers or his daughter.
“JonBenét’s still my 6-year-old blond-headed daughter who I love dearly,” Ramsey told ABC News. “I did run into one of her little friends on the street who is now, you know, 30 and an adult. And it was, it was a little bit of a shock. This little girl played with JonBenét at our house all the time. And that was a little bit of a jolt to think, wow, that could have been JonBenét.”
Ramsey, now 81 years old, has renewed hope that his daughter’s killer can finally be found. He is confident that advances in DNA technology, including genetic genealogy that has helped to solve several high-profile cold case, are the key to solving this mystery.
“Let’s do a reverse family tree and see if he had a relative living in Boulder in 1996. The interesting thing about these cold cases,” Ramsey said. “The ultimate first arrest came out of nowhere. They were on no one’s radar. They’ve done this horrible crime and nobody said that that guy’s a suspect. That’s what we’re asking the police to do.”
Over the years, Ramsey expressed frustration with the police for not solving his daughter’s case. He was unhappy with being a prime suspect for 12 years and that the department rejected offers of help to find viable evidence. He recently took part in a new Netflix docuseries, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?” The series dives into lingering mysteries surrounding the tragic case, exploring evidence, interviews and theories that have emerged over the years.
Ramsey collaborated with director Joe Berlinger, who aimed to illuminate what he described as one of the most victimized families in American history.
“Obviously, he wasn’t legally wrongfully convicted, but he was wrongfully convicted,” Berlinger said. “And his wife Patsy — the family were wrongfully convicted in the court of public opinion.”
The popular docuseries ignited a new wave of interest among viewers.
Ramsey is hopeful that recent changes in the Boulder Police Department’s leadership and better communication with his family may lead to a resolution in the case.
The Boulder police department has addressed the recent scrutiny. Last month, the current police chief released a video statement.
“So much of how law enforcement works has changed in the last 30 years,” Stephen Redfearn said. “There are a number of things that people have pointed to throughout the years that could have been done better and we acknowledge that as true. However, it is important to emphasize that while we cannot go back to that horrible day in 1996, our goal is to find JonBenét Ramsey’s killer.”
That tragic day in 1996 began in the picturesque Boulder neighborhood where the Ramsey family lived. On Dec. 26, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to find that JonBenét, a child beauty queen, was missing.
A handwritten ransom note demanding $118,000 — the exact sum of John’s bonus that year — was discovered on the kitchen stairs. Seven hours later, John found his daughter’s lifeless body in a small basement room.
An autopsy determined JonBenét was sexually assaulted and strangled, and her skull was fractured. Unknown DNA was found under her fingernails and in her underwear.
The Ramseys quickly became suspects, even though no evidence connected them to the crime.
The family has always denied any involvement in JonBenét’s murder. However, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office took 12 years to fully exonerate the Ramseys and their son Burke, who was 9 years old when his sister died.
As weeks went by without any arrests in the case, a media frenzy began to build, fueled by relentless tabloid images of JonBenét participating in beauty pageants.
A number of leads emerged, including a man named John Mark Karr, who confessed to the killing in 2006. However, his DNA did not match the evidence and he was not in Boulder at the time of the murder, so he was eliminated as a suspect. The case remained unsolved.
John Ramsey believes that a cloud still hangs over his family, as he thinks there are people in the country who think he and his late wife, Patsy, who died in 2006, are responsible for JonBenét’s murder.
Investigator Lou Smit, who was initially brought into the case by Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, came to believe early in his investigation that the Ramseys were innocent. He thought that the police should be looking at the possibility of an intruder.“I’m not saying parents don’t kill their kids … parents do kill their children,” Smit said in his tapes. “But [the police] are trying to say Patsy did it. … Their actions before, during and after [JonBenét’s death] are all consistent with innocent people. … They didn’t do it.”
As the investigation progressed Smit became increasingly concerned that authorities had completely ruled out the chance of an intruder being responsible for JonBenét’s death. As a result, they weren’t searching for evidence that might support this possibility.Smit continued to maintain that an unidentified intruder was responsible for JonBenét’s murder. However, he was running out of time due to his colon cancer diagnosis in 2010.
Before Smit died on Aug. 11 of that year, he diligently compiled a detailed list of persons of interest, hoping that his years of investigative work would eventually pay off. Smit passed his files to his surviving children, including a spreadsheet with 887 names of potential suspects to be investigated.That list is extensive, but Smit’s family is determined to continue their search. Since his death, the team has cleared several individuals from that list, according to Smit’s granddaughter Jessa Van Der Woerd. However, the process is slow due to the time and costs involved in locating each person, obtaining their DNA and testing it.
“We’ve let the killer walk for more than 28 years,” John Ramsey said. “I think it’s imperative that we investigate every credible suspect that’s been provided.”
(NEW YORK) — A mother in Alabama has been arrested and charged with the alleged murder of her 4-month-old son after an autopsy found that he had been severely injured, police said.
On Jan. 25, the Chambers County emergency dispatch center received a 911 call at approximately 1:55 PM in reference to a 4-month-old infant having a seizure at a residence in the Old Jackson Heights Housing Project in Lanett, Alabama, according to a statement from the Lanett Police Department.
“The East Alabama Fire Department was contacted for mutual aid and transported the black male infant to East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC),” authorities said. “The child’s condition was assessed by the medical staff at EAMC and then flown to the Children’s of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. Alabama.”
The 4-month-old boy, however, died in the hospital just four days later and was taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science Medical Lab in Montgomery, Alabama to undergo an autopsy about what caused his death after police suspected fould play and said “the circumstances of the child’s death are under investigation by the Lanett Police Department.”
On Wednesday, the Lanett Police Department announced that the boy’s mother — 26-year-old Jamesia Brichae Pruit of Valley, Alabama — was arrested and charged with the alleged murder of the infant.
Police did not disclose the extent of the injuries the boy suffered but did confirm that this case remains under investigation and has asked for anyone with information regarding this case to contact the Lanett Police Department.
