Wisconsin woman found ‘alive and well’ after being missing for 62 years
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(SAUK COUNTY, Wis.) — A Wisconsin woman who was missing for over 60 years was discovered to be “alive and well,” according to the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office.
Audrey Backeberg, who was reported missing on July 7, 1962, was found by detectives outside the state of Wisconsin, the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement shared last week.
At the time of her disappearance, Backeberg was residing in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said. The family’s babysitter claimed she and Aubrey — who was 20 at the time — hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin, and then took a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis.
The babysitter said Backeberg was last seen “walking around the corner away from the bus stop,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice
Since her disappearance, Backeberg has “never returned home and has not been heard from again,” the Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a missing persons poster.
Throughout the years, investigators “pursued numerous leads in an effort to determine Audrey’s whereabouts,” the sheriff’s office said. Despite all efforts, the case “eventually went cold,” officials said.
But earlier this year, the case was assigned to Sauk County Sheriff’s Detective Isaac Hanson, who reevaluated all the case files, evidence and also re-interviewed witnesses. Through Hanson’s work, he was able to obtain an address from Backeberg’s sister’s online ancestry account, he told Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN.
Hanson called officials at the local sheriff’s department and asked if they could visit the address, and “10 minutes later, she called me and we talked for 45 minutes,” Hanson told WISN.
Backeberg is “alive and well” and currently resides outside of the state of Wisconsin, the sheriff’s office said. Officials said her disappearance was “by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play.”
Hanson said Backeberg “had her reasons” for disappearing, but an abusive husband may have played a role in her decision to leave, he told WISN. It is still unclear why Backeberg stayed away for over six decades.
“This resolution underscores both the importance of continued work and the dedication of the Sheriff’s Office to providing answers to families and the community,” officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — A Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee meeting that was set to discuss what flu strains to include in next season’s flu vaccine has been canceled, multiple sources told ABC News, leaving some to wonder if the meeting cancelation will delay next year’s flu vaccine delivery schedule.
The meeting was canceled in an email sent from the FDA to members who were planning to attend the annual meeting in about two weeks.
The high-profile, public meetings of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee are where independent experts review scientific data and vote on a variety of vaccine related issues. Members of the March 13 meeting were set to vote on which flu strains would offer the most protection in next season’s flu shot.
“Influenza vaccines aren’t perfect and to get the best influence vaccine each year requires predicting the strain as best we can,” said Dr. Andrew Pavia, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Utah and a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “There’s a lot of complex data that needs to be reviewed and having a number of experts do it gives us the best chance of making the best prediction.”
The meeting typically takes into consideration recommendations from WHO. It also receives input and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and vaccine manufacturers.
The timing of this meeting aligns with the six-month lead time typically required for vaccine manufacturing to ensure vaccines are ready for distribution in the fall — before peak flu season hits in the United States.
“I can’t think of any rational reason to do this other than to throw a hand grenade into vaccine production,” Pavia said. “The impact is going to be felt in terms of our ability to reduce flu hospitalizations and flu deaths.”
Earlier in the week, officials and specialists at the CDC virtually joined the annual WHO meeting to discuss the upcoming flu vaccine strain for next year, despite being previously ordered to halt all communication with the global health organization.
Typically, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets after the WHO meeting to finalize recommendations.
It remains unclear what impact the meeting cancellation may have on next season’s flu vaccine. But experts are concerned about the timing because flu vaccines are made using chicken eggs to grow and harvest the virus before processing it into a vaccine.
“It’s a very very tight timeline because it takes a long time to create the template viruses and then grow them in eggs,” Pavia said. “It is a many months long process and any delay means it will be difficult to have vaccine in time for the next season.”
U.S. vaccine strains are usually picked by April. Manufacturing is completed over the summer and delivered for vaccination starting in September.
Sanofi, one manufacturer of flu vaccines, told ABC News the company has already started the initial steps of manufacturing.
“Just as every year, we have already begun production for the 2025-2026 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere and will be ready to support final strain selections in time for the season,” a spokesperson for Sanofi told ABC News.
However, the FDA must approve the final strains for the shots to be legally marketed and distributed in the U.S.
ABC News has reached out to both the FDA and Health and Human Services for comment.
Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s independent committee who was planning on attending the meeting said, “Who canceled this meeting? Why did they cancel it? Will the vaccine makers turn to the World Health Organization to determine which strains to include in this year’s vaccine?”
“It’s very concerning with regard to the ability to produce enough vaccine in time for next year’s flu season,” Pavia added. “Hopefully, there will be workarounds that could be developed. But what they are — we don’t know yet.”
Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks with a Tennessee state trooper on the side of I-40 in 2022. Tennessee Highway Patrol
(NEW YORK) — Newly released video shows the moments when Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongfully deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador, was pulled over by state troopers in Tennessee in 2022.
The video, which was obtained by ABC News through a public records request, shows members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol questioning Abrego Garcia on the side of Interstate 40 after nightfall.
Abrego Garcia was not charged or arrested during the traffic stop, which lasted for more than an hour. This stop is separate from the stop in March by federal agents in Maryland that led to Abrego Garcia being taken into custody and ultimately deported to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that he is an MS-13 member.
The 2022 traffic stop was disclosed in April in a press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security, which said it had a “bombshell investigative report” regarding the stop alleging that Abrego Garcia was a suspected human trafficker. The release included a screengrab of the body camera video.
“The encountering officer decided not to cite the subject for driving infractions but gave him a warning citation for driving with an expired driver’s license,” the release added.
“Kilmar worked in construction and sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, so it’s entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle,” Jennifer Vasquez, Abrego Garcia’s wife, said in a statement after the release was issued.
The DHS press release said that the 2022 traffic stop occurred on Dec. 1, but an incident report released by the Tennessee Highway Patrol indicated that the stop took place on Nov. 30.
The traffic stop occurred in the Cookeville area, roughly 80 miles east of Nashville.
The trooper who pulled Abrego Garcia over told him that he was driving 75 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone. Abrego Garcia told the trooper that his license was suspended because he was waiting for an immigration paper, adding that he lives in Maryland and that the car he was driving belonged to his boss.
“You got a bunch of people in here, don’t you,” a trooper said after approaching the Chevrolet Suburban that Abrego Garcia was driving, according to the body camera video.
After going to his police car and returning, the trooper asks Abrego Garcia about how many rows of seats were in the car.
“I’ve never seen one with that many seats in it,” the trooper says.
“Oh, really?” Abrego Garcia responds.
The trooper then asks Abrego Garcia if there is anything illegal in the car.
“Nothing sir,” Abrego Garcia replies.
Abrego Garcia is asked to step out of the car and tells the trooper that he was traveling from St. Louis, Missouri, where he had a work project.
“Right now, I’m going back to home,” Abrego Garcia says before the trooper has a K-9 sniff the exterior of the vehicle. It appears that the police dog did not locate anything suspicious.
Troopers later allowed Abrego Garcia to sit in the back of a patrol car to escape the cold temperatures while they spoke among themselves and questioned his passengers, but no one at the scene was taken into custody.
“Thank you, bro,” Abrego Garcia says. “Thank you so much.”
Abrego Garcia was ultimately allowed to drive off, smiling at the trooper who stopped him as he exited the patrol car and returned to the Chevrolet.
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security blurred license plates and redacted part of the audio of the traffic stop.
A federal judge ruled last month that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. Several members of the administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have suggested that the matter is up to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
(NEW YORK) — Honey bee colonies across the United States are facing record-breaking losses in 2025, with scientists warning the impact could be felt in agricultural production.
Washington State University entomologists announced this week that commercial honey bee colony losses are projected to reach between 60% and 70% in 2025.
Over the past decade, annual losses for colonies have typically ranged between 40% and 50%, marking a significant jump this year.
Priya Chakrabarti Basu, an assistant professor of pollinator health and apiculture at WSU told ABC News that honey bee losses could stem from nutrition deficiencies, mite infestations, viral diseases and possible pesticide exposure during the previous pollinating season.
“I honestly think this is a combination of multiple stressors, which is why for years my lab has been focusing on understanding the impacts of and interactions of these stressors on bee pollinators,” Basu said, adding that America’s commercial beekeepers are under pressure to maintain colonies.
“The pollination demands haven’t gone down, so beekeepers face tremendous pressure to keep the same number of colonies to meet those needs,” Basu said.
Pollination is critical for food production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the agency saying about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to produce.
Crops that depend on honey bees and other pollinators to grow include fruits and vegetables — like apples, strawberries, cucumbers and avocados — but also nuts, such as almonds and macadamia nuts, the USDA said. Other affected plants include coffee, cocoa and vanilla, according to the USDA.
“I don’t want to be a fearmonger, but this level of national loss could mean increased bankruptcies amongst beekeepers,” Brandon Hopkins, a professor of pollinator ecology at WSU, said in a press release accompanying the research.
Hopkins said the effects could be felt the strongest in California’s almond production.
California almonds are the biggest crop for honey bee pollination, which happens in February and March, according to Hopkins.
“The almond industry frequently asks for strong colonies,” Hopkins said in the release.
“But this year, growers are desperate,” he added. “Anything with live bees in a box is in demand because the industry is short on supply. I haven’t heard of that since the early days of colony collapse around 2008.”
Honey bees had a production value of nearly $350 million in 2023, according to the USDA.
In order to combat such severe colony losses, WSU scientists are working on methods for widespread varroa mite control, awareness on commercial honey bee colony management practices and new research on bee nutrition in the hopes beekeepers will have better access to healthy food for their colonies, according to the release.
