University of Alabama graduate student detained by ICE, school says

(KANSAS) — One traffic violation on a Kansas highway led to the miraculous rescue of a 6-year-old girl who had been kidnapped.

Kansas Highway Patrol said the rescue happened after a highway trooper stopped an SUV for a traffic violation last month.

During the traffic stop, the trooper discovered that the front-seat passenger had a warrant for his arrest from another state for kidnapping a 6-year-old girl just over a month earlier, officials said in a post on Facebook.

Kansas Highway Patrol said the trooper had observed a girl in the vehicle about that age riding with the two adult male occupants, both of whom were in their 60s.

Officials said the driver of the vehicle had a criminal history that included homicide and numerous weapons violations.

“After the trooper and a deputy from a local sheriff’s office quickly secured both the driver and passenger, the trooper safely removed the little girl from the vehicle,” Kansas Highway Patrol wrote in the post.

Officials said initially the 6-year-old girl gave the trooper a false name and date of birth “after having been coached to do so, in an attempt to keep the adult out of jail.”

The young girl eventually told the trooper her real name when it was confirmed she was the kidnapping victim who had been with the suspect for over a month, officials said.

“Thankfully the girl was unharmed, and the men were taken into custody,” officials added.

The identities of those involved have not yet been released.

ABC News has reached out to the Kansas Highway Patrol for comment.

ABC News’ Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A man has been arrested in a woman’s 1979 cold case murder after investigators used genetic genealogy to zero in on his identity, police in Maryland announced.

On March 3, 1979, the body of 31-year-old secretary Kathryn Donohue was discovered in a parking lot in Glenarden, Maryland, the Prince George’s County Police Department said.

The Arlington, Virginia, resident was beaten, raped and killed in a “brutal murder,” Bill DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, said during a news conference on Tuesday.

No suspects were identified and the case went unsolved for decades, leaving Donohue’s family waiting for answers, authorities said.

But police said DNA was left on her body.

In 2024, police said they identified a relative of the suspect through genetic genealogy, an investigative tool in which the unknown DNA from the crime scene is identified by comparing it to family members who voluntarily submit DNA samples to a database.

“Additional investigation ultimately led” police to identify the suspect as Rodger Zodas Brown, who lived in Prince George’s County at the time of the murder, police said.

Brown, now 82, was arrested last week at his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, police said. He was “solemn,” “cold” and showed “no reaction” when he was arrested, police said.

There’s no apparent connection between Donohue and Brown, police said.

Brown was charged with first-degree murder, rape and related charges. He’s in custody in North Carolina awaiting extradition to Maryland, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear if Brown had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

In a statement released by police, Donohue’s family thanked the investigators, saying their “relentless pursuit of the truth” “has finally given us a sense of closure that we never thought possible after all this time.”

“This case serves as a reminder that we will never give up seeking the truth no matter how much time has passed,” Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said.

The investigation remains active. Police asked anyone with information to call the department at 301-516-2512.

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(WASHINGTON) — Many of the noncitizens who were deported pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act on Saturday did not have criminal records, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a sworn filing overnight.

In a sworn declaration, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

“While it is true that many of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat,” Cerna said.

The admission that many of the men lacked criminal records – and were deported on the assumption that they might be terrorists – comes as top Trump administration officials insist that the men were violent criminals, with President Donald Trump labeling them “monsters.”

Cerna wrote that some of the men have been convicted or arrested for crimes including murder, assault, harassment, and drug offenses, writing that ICE personnel “carefully vetted each individual alien to ensure they were in fact members of TdA.”

To determine whether a noncitizen was a “member of TdA,” he said law enforcement allegedly used victim testimony, financial transactions, computer checks, and other “investigative techniques.”

“ICE did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone,” Cerna said.

The declaration was included in the Trump administration’s recent motion to vacate Judge James Boasberg’s temporary restraining orders blocking deportations pursuant to the AEA.

“These orders are an affront to the President’s broad constitutional and statutory authority to protect the United States from dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people,” Department of Justice lawyers argued.

Boasberg ordered the Department of Justice to submit, by noon Tuesday, a sworn declaration about how many noncitizens were deported under the AEA  and when they were removed from the country.

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