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.
(BOSTON) — Judge Beverly Cannone denied Karen Read a mistrial in her second murder trial in the killing of her cop boyfriend John O’Keefe on Tuesday.
Attorneys for Karen Read asked the judge to declare a mistrial with prejudice in her second murder trial after prosecutors questioned a defense witness over whether she was aware no dog DNA was found on O’Keefe’s sweater from the night of the murder, in an attempt to discredit the defense’s theory.
Dog bite expert and forensic pathologist Dr. Marie Russell testified that markings on O’Keefe’s arm were caused by dog bites and scratches, supporting the defense’s claim that O’Keefe was attacked by a dog and beaten by other parties before being thrown out into the snow the night of the murder.
Prosecutors — for the first time in this trial — admitted O’Keefe’s sweater into evidence and cited a forensics report that said there was no evidence of dog DNA.
Prosecutors have alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her car outside the home of fellow police officer Brian Albert — causing the marks on his arm — then left him there to die during a major blizzard.
Read is accused of killing O’Keefe in 2022. Read is charged with second degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving a scene of personal injury and death.
She has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.
Read’s first murder trial ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year confirmed she was found not guilty of murder and leaving the scene.
The prosecution rested last week and the defense began presenting its case.
On Tuesday, prosecutors introduced evidence — O’Keefe’s sweatshirt from the night of the murder — to the defense’s expert witness, asking her if she was aware that holes in the arm of the sweatshirt had been swabbed for traces of dog DNA. The evidence had not been previously presented to this jury.
Before she could answer, the defense objected. After a short sidebar between attorneys and the judge, the jury was removed from the courtroom.
After the jury and the witness on the stand — Russell — left the courtroom, Read’s defense team requested the judge declare a mistrial with prejudice.
“Attorney Brennan — just with regard to Dr. Russell — in open court, in front of the jury, used the concept of DNA in this case. He has introduced it and brought it in for the very first time in front of the jury. He has done so intentionally,” defense Attorney Robert Alessi said Tuesday.
“Based upon that intentional mention, the defense moves strongly, vigorously for a mistrial with prejudice,” Alessi said.
Lawyers for Read argued that during this trial, prosecutors did not call a witness who, in her first trial, testified about the testing of DNA evidence.
“For whatever reason, the prosecution has chosen not to bring that witness in who would testify, perhaps to DNA. As a result of that strategic decision that the prosecution made, there’s been no mention,” Alessi said.
The defense said that it has purposefully not mentioned DNA in the trial so far and it is not permissible for prosecutors to present it now.
“The prosecution has put in the jury’s mind that topic. That is irremediable. That cannot be reversed,” Alessi said.
“The prosecution has to suffer the consequences of its own intentional actions of bringing up that topic,” Alessi said. “The only remedy is a mistrial with prejudice.”
Prosecutors claimed they had always planned on bringing an expert to discuss DNA on rebuttal and argued that asking the defense’s witness about the presence of dog DNA is permissible and essential.
“The defense is on notice that there is no dog DNA in the sweater of John O’Keefe,” prosecutor Hank Brennan said in court Tuesday.
Alessi argued that there was no swabbing of the wounds in O’Keefe’s right arm for DNA. He also argued that there is a series of concerns about the chain of custody of O’Keefe’s sweater.
O’Keefe’s sweater was “left on the floor of the ambulance, left on the floor of the hospital, carried around by Mr. Proctor for weeks maybe even months, not submitted for testing for months,” Alessi said.
“There are huge issues that prevent a fair determination about whether there was even proper determination of whether there was DNA or not,” Alessi said.
Prosecutors argued that the defense had brought up DNA evidence in previous hearings in the case, making it permissible for them to ask a witness about DNA.
After a short recess, the judge allowed prosecutors to continue questioning the witness about the presence of DNA evidence in the sweater.
Russell testified that there are many reasons why there was no evidence of dog DNA in testing, but said the report stating there is no evidence of dog DNA does not change her determination that a dog caused the marks on O’Keefe’s arm.
Russell also pointed to the delay in the testing of the sweater and concerns mentioned about the chain of custody of the sweater.
(LOS ANGELES) — Demonstrations have gripped Los Angeles for several days in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the sanctuary city, with some protesters clashing with police.
Tensions escalated after President Donald Trump called up the National Guard over the objections of state and city leaders to address what the White House referred to as the “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”
Solidarity protests against ICE have broken out in other cities in the wake of the federal response, which has also included deploying hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles.
Here’s a look at how the protests began and what demonstrators are calling for.
How did the LA protests start?
On Friday, federal agents executed search warrants authorized by a Los Angeles federal judge at four businesses suspected of unlawfully employing undocumented immigrants and falsifying employment records, according to a criminal complaint.
On social media, “word quickly spread about ‘ICE raids’ taking place throughout Los Angeles,” according to the complaint.
Video showed federal agents conducting the operations, including at a Home Depot in Westlake and the clothing manufacturer Ambiance Apparel in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was “deeply angered” over the raids.
“These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city,” she said in a statement on Friday. “We will not stand for this.”
Local activists and family members of the workers showed up at the locations, confronting agents about the arrests. A prominent union leader — Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta — was arrested on Friday outside Ambiance Apparel and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer following an altercation with a law enforcement officer, according to the complaint. SEIU President April Verrett told ABC News that Huerta was “exercising his constitutional right to peacefully protest and be an observer on a sidewalk in the city of Los Angeles.”
Following the raids, protesters also gathered outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles that are home to an immigration court and a detention facility, holding signs that said “ICE out of LA!”
“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized,” Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said during a press conference in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.”
Hours later, amid ongoing protests in downtown LA, the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly Friday evening following reports that a “small group of violent individuals are throwing large pieces of concrete,” and officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowd.
‘We’re going to keep showing up’
Protests against immigration raids continued into the weekend in downtown LA, as well as Los Angeles County cities including Compton and Paramount.
“We have a very beautiful community, a very strong community. And this is why we show up and we’re going to keep showing up,” Paramount demonstrator Nabil Shukir told ABC Los Angeles station KABC over the weekend. “It is an obligation and a duty for each and every one of us to be here and fight against the oppression and these kidnappings.”
On Saturday, the White House said Trump signed a memorandum deploying thousands of National Guardsmen to Los Angeles after “violent mobs” attacked ICE officers — over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The following day, some protesters were seen hurling scooters and bottles at patrol vehicles and several of the self-driving car company Waymo’s vehicles were set on fire.
Amid the protests, LAPD said officers have arrested dozens of people for failure to disperse, as well as looting. Other charges have included attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
Bass has condemned the violence while noting in a call with KABC on Monday that the majority of people protesting have been peaceful and that the more-violent protesting and vandalism were happening “late at night.” She added that she assumed violent protests weren’t being led by people supporting immigrants, but rather by “fringe groups.”
Bass has also blamed Trump for the escalation and has continued to call on the Trump administration to stop immigration raids in the city, saying the fear and uncertainty they have created have led to the unrest.
“It makes me feel like our city is actually a test case, a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government,” she told reporters during a news conference Monday. “I don’t think that our city should be used for an experiment.”
Newsom has called the deployment a “complete overreaction.” He and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the “illegal and unnecessary takeover” of the California National Guard that has “needlessly escalated chaos and violence in the Los Angeles region.”
“Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends,” Bonta said in a statement.
Protests over the federal response and continued ICE raids in the Los Angeles area have been ongoing. Demonstrations have also been held at Los Angeles International Airport against Trump’s new travel ban, which went into effect on Monday and bars nationals of 12 countries from entering the U.S.
SEIU held a large rally in downtown LA on Monday in support of Huerta, who was released from federal custody on a $50,000 bond that day.
Bass said Tuesday it is unclear how many people have been detained by ICE.
“On Thursday of last week, Los Angeles was peaceful. There was nothing going on here that warranted the federal intervention that took place the very next day,” she said during a press briefing. “If we want to look at the cause of what is happening here, I take it back to raids that took place on Friday, and the uncertainty and the fear and the fact that families across the city are terrified that they don’t know if they should go to work, they don’t know if they should go to school.”
Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to send in the National Guard and Marines, saying the situation in LA was “out of control.”
“All I want is safety. I just want a safe area,” he told reporters. “Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it.”
Trump went on to suggest that he sent in the National Guard and the Marines to send a message to other cities not to interfere with ICE operations or they will be met with equal or greater force.
“If we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country,” he said. “But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here.”
Why are people protesting ICE?
Since Friday, other demonstrations have broken out across the country in solidarity, protesting ICE activity in their communities and the federal response in Los Angeles. On Monday, protests were held in cities including New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, and, in California, San Jose and Santa Ana.
Protesters turned out in San Francisco on Sunday outside of an Immigration Services building to rally in solidarity against ICE raids and deportations.
“We’ve been watching what’s going on in LA, and we’re like, no,” protester Nancy Kato told ABC San Francisco station KGO. “The whole thing about going after immigrants and people who are undocumented, the most vulnerable of our populations, that is so wrong.”
Nellie Wong told KGO she was there “to protest the outrageous attacks on undocumented immigrants.”
“This has been going on for some time, but the events that have been going on in Los Angeles, I just find horrifying,” another protester, Amy Gray-Schlink, told KGO. “We need a united front of everyone who wants to oppose the scapegoating of immigrants.”
In San Diego County, protesters gathered near the main gate of Camp Pendleton on Sunday to stand against any military activation.
“We want to show our support to the military members that work here. We want to kind of remind them of what their duty is to us,” one of the demonstrators, Air Force veteran Patrick Saunders, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. “But additionally, we want to make it very publicly known that we condemn any sort of action by the administration of using active duty or National Guard troops on U.S. citizens.”
(NEWARK, NJ) — The Federal Aviation Administration is considering temporary flight reductions in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, and it’s launching an emergency task force to ensure safety, among other system upgrades announced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a press conference on Monday.
Duffy blamed recent telecommunications issues at Newark Liberty International Airport on former President Joe Biden’s administration, claiming that it mishandled a move of air traffic control from New York to Philadelphia in 2024.
He said that the administration had moved the terminal radar approach control, or TRACON, “without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data.”
“Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden did nothing to fix this system that they knew was broken,” he said, casting blame on his predecessor under Biden.
“Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system,” he added.
Duffy’s allegations come after an equipment issue on Sunday prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to order a 45-minute ground stop at the New Jersey airport.
However, Duffy claimed that the issue did not technically result in an outage — because the FAA had just performed a software update on the backup system on Friday night to prevent future outages.
“The software patch was successful, and our redundant lines are now both working,” he said, confirming that the main line went down on Sunday — but the backup line did not.
It was only out of “an abundance of caution” that traffic controllers shut down the airspace for 45 minutes on Sunday, Duffy explained.
Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau also appeared at the press conference on Monday and announced that the agency was launching an emergency task force to ensure that travel in and out of Newark remains safe and efficient.
The task force comprises experts from the FAA, Verizon and L3Harris — an FAA contractor that purports to focus on “advanced defense and commercial technologies.”
Sunday’s incident marks the fourth time in the past two weeks that technical problems have disrupted air traffic at Newark.
Duffy also noted that the telecoms system’s age contributed to recent issues.
“The system is so old that even when you have high-speed fiber information coming in … the information has to be slowed down, it comes in too fast,” Duffy said, saying that the information could only travel at “the speed of copper wires.”
For that reason he said that the FAA has replaced copper lines with fiber lines at Newark, along with New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The new lines are currently being tested, he said, and the agency hopes to make the switch and have them fully operational by the end of May.
“The goal is to add three new telecommunications lines between New York and Philadelphia,” Duffy added. “This will provide more high-speed reliability and redundancy — so if one goes down, we’re assured that the others will stand up.”
Additionally, the FAA will be meeting with airlines on Wednesday to discuss potential flight reductions at the Newark, he said, echoing an announcement made last week by the FAA. The move would be an effort to reduce ongoing flight delays to and from the airport.
During the meeting, the airlines will confidentially propose flight cuts to the agency based on the congested timeframes identified by the FAA.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby announced on May 2 that the airline was “unilaterally” cutting 35 daily roundtrips from its Newark schedule after several air traffic controllers went on medical leave following the April 28 outage. Newark often has 80 or more flights per hour, Kirby noted in the statement, calling the number unsustainable.
If approved, flight reductions are expected to stay in effect all summer. A final decision will be made after the meeting, and the order will be submitted to the Federal Register by the FAA.
Duffy said that the FAA is closely working with Verizon and L3Harris to determine the underlying cause of the recurring telecommunications issues and address them in an expedited manner.
He also said that he is asking the Office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation into decisions made by the last administration that might be linked to recent equipment failures.
Rocheleau reiterated that traveling in and out of Newark remains safe, and the task force will continue to monitor the upgrades announced by Duffy.
