Posts Tagged ‘Found’
Homemade bomb found at mall near Columbine high (Reuters)
Last Updated on Thursday, 21 April 2011 05:35 Written by admin Thursday, 21 April 2011 05:35
DENVER (Reuters) – A occupied buying mall close to Columbine Large College was evacuated on Wednesday following authorities responding to a modest fire at the retail complex discovered two propane tanks and a pipe bomb, officials mentioned.
Twelve a long time to the day soon after two Columbine High College pupils shot dead a teacher, twelve students and by themselves on April twenty, 1999, the units were discovered at Southwest Plaza Mall, about a mile from Columbine.
Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace, stated the protection scare began when a small blaze broke out in the mall’s meals court about noon on Wednesday.
Firefighters arriving on the scene found out the propane tanks “at the origin of the fire,” and police ordered an believed 10,000 shoppers and mall workers out of the complicated, Kelley explained.
Bomb squads later uncovered the pipe bomb nearby as they combed by way of the sprawling plaza with explosives-detecting canines, she mentioned.
Amid the arsenal that Columbine assailants Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris brought to college during their assault in 1999 had been pipe bombs and propane tanks fashioned into bombs.
The similarity of units identified at the mall to the explosives in the school assault was not misplaced on investigators, Kelley mentioned.
“It is very disturbing that this transpired nowadays of all days,” Kelley said.
FBI agents named to the scene had been treating the bomb placements as “a circumstance of domestic terrorism,” Kelley stated.
FBI spokesman Dave Joly later told reporters that investigators think the pipe bomb was meant to set off a more substantial explosion of the propane tanks.
Kelley said the bomb fell apart whilst explosives technicians have been managing the gadget as they ready to detonate it, and it was “rendered secure.”
Investigators reviewed videotapes from surveillance cameras for clues, and later on introduced two nonetheless photos from the tapes displaying a gray-haired guy with a mustache and baseball cap they described as a “man or woman of interest.”
The FBI asked for the public’s help in finding the unidentified man, who was captured in a single photo close to a door by a stairwell, carrying a plastic grocery bag in one hand.
Columbine cancels classes every single year on the anniversary of the massacre there. But other universities in the region had been put on lock-down for the duration of Wednesday’s bomb scare at the mall as a precaution till the all-obvious was given, Kelley mentioned.
The mall will continue to be closed until the investigation is complete.
Discovery of the pipe bomb came a day following police in Colorado Springs, about 50 miles to the southeast, confronted a teenage boy who admitted posting “Columbine-type threats” versus his large school on his Facebook account.
A police spokesman mentioned the Palmer Substantial College ninth grader informed officers who visited his residence Tuesday that the threats ended up meant as a joke, and he apologized, along with his loved ones.
The university student, whose name was not released, also agreed to remain house from college on Wednesday. Police patrols and protection at the school ended up stepped up for the day, police said.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman and Steve Gorman Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Greg McCune)
Human remains found in search for Zahra Baker: reports – Sydney Morning Herald
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 November 2010 03:06 Written by admin Thursday, 11 November 2010 03:06
Zahra Baker
After a month-long search in garbage tips, ponds, creeks and bushland in the vicinity of the 10-year-old Australian girl’s home in Hickory, North Carolina, police have announced they had “located evidence that could provide valuable information in the Zahra Baker case”.
Hickory police would not reveal what the evidence was, but local media outlets are reporting human remains were found.
The discovery was made in bushland where Zahra’s stepmother, Elisa Baker, led authorities to last month.
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“Search teams in Caldwell County yesterday located evidence that could provide valuable information in the Zahra Baker case,” a statement from Hickory Police said.
“This evidence will be analysed at the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s lab. We understand the concern and interest in this case by the public but we must be cautious in prematurely releasing information so it will not jeopardise any future criminal proceedings.”
A police search in the area two weeks ago found Zahra’s prosthetic leg.
The 10-year-old, who had the lower half of her left leg amputated five years ago after being stricken by bone cancer, was reported missing by her former Queensland sugar mill worker father Adam on October 9, but police believe she was missing longer than that.
Elisa has been held in custody since October 10, with one charge relating to a fake ransom note police allege she wrote and left on a vehicle outside their Hickory home.
US media reports also say Zahra’s biological mother Emily Dietrich, who suffered post natal depression after the birth of Zahra and handed custody to Adam, is travelling to North Carolina from Australia.
She is expected to arrive on Thursday [local time].
AAP
Elizabeth Smart testifies about day she was found – Washington Post
Last Updated on Tuesday, 9 November 2010 07:05 Written by admin Tuesday, 9 November 2010 07:05
SALT LAKE CITY — Elizabeth Smart was so terrified of her abductor that on the day police found her, she told them she was someone else.
She took the stand at her alleged kidnapper’s trial for a second day Tuesday, telling jurors she was also too scared to speak up when a detective tried to question her in a public library months before she was finally freed.
Smart spent nearly six hours testifying in a steady voice before a rapt audience in U.S. District Court.
She told jurors Brian David Mitchell raped her almost daily and forced her to drink, use drugs and view pornography. Once she tried to flee, and Mitchell and his wife caught her and told her an angel would cut her down with a sword if she ever tried it again.
Mitchell, who knew Smart because her mother had hired him to fix the family’s leaky roof, is accused of kidnapping her from her bed in June 2002, when she was 14.
His attorneys say the homeless street preacher known as Immanuel was influenced by a worsening mental illness and religious beliefs that made him think he was doing what God wanted.
Smart testified Tuesday that when police finally found her in March 2003, wearing a wig and sunglasses and walking along a suburban Salt Lake City street with Mitchell and his wife, she told them she was Augustine Marshall, the daughter of traveling preachers.
Smart, now 23, said that was the story Mitchell had instructed her to tell if ever the three were approached.
Police separated them and peppered Smart with questions. They were tipped off by drivers who reported seeing the girl.
“I was very scared. I knew the threats that I had been told for nine months,” said Smart, who was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. “I thought maybe at the same time that this is it. This is it, this is over.”
Smart also told jurors about a missed chance to tell police what had happened when a detective approached her at the Salt Lake City library in the early fall, a few months after she was kidnapped.
She was wearing a robe and a veil that covered her face, and the detective asked if he could look under it.
Tags: about, Elizabeth, Found, Post, Smart, Testifies, Washington | Posted under U.S. News | No Comments
Elizabeth Smart testifies about day she was found – Forbes
Last Updated on Tuesday, 9 November 2010 04:04 Written by admin Tuesday, 9 November 2010 04:04
SALT LAKE CITY –
Elizabeth Smart says that on the day police finally found her, she lied to them about her identity out of fear her abductor would kill her.
Smart is testifying at the trial of Brian David Mitchell, who is accused of kidnapping her from her bedroom in 2002 and holding her captive for nine months.
She told jurors Tuesday that she told police she was Augustine Marshall, the daughter of traveling preachers. She says that was the story Mitchell directed to her to tell if ever anyone approached her.
But Smart says she was also thinking her ordeal was finally coming to an end.
Police stopped a disguised Smart, along with Mitchell and his wife, while they were walking on a suburban Salt Lake City street. Drivers had reported seeing the girl.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Elizabeth Smart told jurors Tuesday how a Salt Lake City police detective tried to see behind her veil but backed down when the man accused of kidnapping her said her face was hidden for religious reasons.
“I was mad at myself, that I didn’t say anything,” she said on her second day of testimony in the federal trial of Brian David Mitchell. “I felt terrible that the detective hadn’t pushed harder and had just walked away.”
Smart, now 23, was 14 when she was taken at knifepoint in June 2002 while sleeping. Nine months later, motorists spotted her walking in a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell.
Mitchell, 57, faces life in prison if he is convicted of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
The close call happened months after her abduction.
The detective had approached a robed Smart sitting at a library table and asked if he could look under the veil she wore across her face.
“He said he was looking for Elizabeth Smart,” Smart said.
Under the table, Mitchell’s wife at the time, Wanda Eileen Barzee, squeezed Smart’s leg – a sign, Smart said, that she should remain quiet.
Mitchell stood between Smart and the detective.
“He said that it was not allowed in our religion and that only my husband would ever see my face.” she said.
The detective pressed.
“He asked if he could be a part of our religion for a day, just so he could see my face, just so he could go back (to the police station) and say, ‘no it wasn’t Elizabeth Smart’,” she said.
Mitchell remained cool and calm, stating again firmly that it would not be allowed. The detective gave up and left, Smart said.
Afterward, Mitchell sped up plans to move the trio away from Utah, so Smart would not be discovered, she told jurors.
The encounter came in early fall, weeks after Mitchell and Barzee first brought Smart with them into the city – essentially hiding her in plain sight but keeping her under his control with threats on her life.
“He told me that I needed to stay next to him at all times and that if I tried to run away, I would be killed,” Smart said, describing her first venture into the city.
Smart said Mitchell took her to a noisy, “rave-type” party he was invited to by a grocery store employee he had befriended.
“There was a lot of drinking and drugs,” she said, adding that she could smell cigarettes and marijuana burning.
Smart said Mitchell was also forced to drink a liquid laced with the hallucinogenic absinthe.
Mitchell also became very territorial when the grocery clerk, Daniel Trotta, tried to talk to her, Smart said.
“He said this is my daughter and she can’t talk to you,” she said.
The trip was the first of many – Mitchell essentially hiding a white-robed Smart, whose face was hidden behind the veil, in plain sight, keeping her quiet with threats.
It also came within weeks of Mitchell’s July 24 unsuccessful attempt to kidnap one of Smart’s cousin, Olivia Wright, from another part of Salt Lake City.
“He decided it was time to go and kidnap another girl to be another wife,” Smart said.
Smart said she watched Mitchell pack a bag with the same dark clothing, stocking cap and knife that he has used the night he had taken her from her home.
The kidnapping attempt was thwarted when Mitchell tried to get through a window of Wright’s home but pushed over some knickknacks from the windowsill and awakened the sleeping household.
The following day, Mitchell forced Smart to metaphorically sever any remaining ties with her family by burning the red pajamas she had been wearing on the night she was taken.
Smart said she dropped the pajamas into a campfire and watched them burn. Afterward, she found in the ashes a safety pin that she had used to keep the neck of the pajamas closed. She fastened it to a small piece of rubber from her tennis shoes – which Mitchell had thrown out – and hid it.
“I didn’t want to let go of my family, of my life,” she said.
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