Free Republic

US Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas found a missing girl inside a tractor-trailer at the I-35 checkpoint crossing into Mexico. The girl was missing out of Odessa, Texas -- nearly a seven-hour drive north of Laredo where she was found. The girl was not publicly identified, but officials confirmed she is a juvenile. It's unclear how long she had been missing. The Webb County Sheriff's Office took the driver into custody. No further information was available.

Scammers are capitalising on the fear Chinese people have of the Chinese Communist Party and are trapping international students in New South Wales (NSW) while forcing them to act out fake kidnappings to extort their parents.NSW Police say that in 2020 alone they have had at least eight “virtual kidnappings” reported to them and the scams have netted millions in ransom money.Investigators have been told that fraudsters initially make contact with a victim via phone call. The fraudster speaks Mandarin and claims to represent a “Chinese authority” including personnel from the embassy, consulate, or police in China. The caller...

     LOS ANGELES – Two men from the San Gabriel Valley were charged today in federal court for allegedly participating in the kidnapping of Ruochen “Tony” Liao, a Chinese national who was violently abducted from a mall parking lot in San Gabriel two years ago, and whose parents were extorted for $2 million in ransom before Liao died from his injuries.         Anthony Valladares, 28, of Pasadena, and Alexis Ivan Romero Velez, 24, most recently a resident of Azusa, were taken into custody Tuesday during the execution of search warrants by FBI agents and members of the San Gabriel Valley Safe Street...

A man was arrested Thursday after being accused of kidnapping, raping and sodomizing a 15-year-old girl in Augusta, according to multiple media reports. Bill Eugene Anderson, 59, is accused of spotting the girl walking along the 200 block of Pleasant Home Road and approaching her in his car, the Augusta Chronicle reported. He told her that he had a gun and demanded that she get into the car, according to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office incident report. The report, which was obtained by the Chronicle, said Anderson took the teenager to a nearby motel off Gordon Highway and sexually assault...

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, has admitted to unlawfully retaining a document containing national defense information and committing international parental kidnapping, the Department of Justice announced.Shirley, 47, pled guilty to one count of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information” and one count of “International Parental Kidnapping.”  Shirley admitted to unlawfully retaining a National Security Agency (NSA) document containing information classified at the TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION (TS/SCI) level relating to the national defense that outlines intelligence information regarding a foreign government’s military and political issues.  Shirley also admitted to removing her child, of whom she was the...

Protesters who have stopped cars on highways or anywhere are essentially kidnapping the individuals inside. No difference exists between detaining the person trying to leave a dangerous scene and several individuals holding their arms to keep them there. This should be a felony. If the individual leaves the vehicle to run, then the perpetrators have "stolen" the vehicle. Pass a law to make it felony kidnapping to detain someone in their vehicle without law enforcement authority.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

CLIFTON PARK — A dozen criminal charges, including felony kidnapping and burglary, have been filed against the man accused of kidnapping his son from a suburban Clifton Park home early Friday morning, state police said on Saturday. Nivaldo P. Oliveira, 41, who gave police a Clifton Park address, is charged with second-degree kidnapping, first- and second-degree burglary, felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief, menacing, possession of a weapon, petty larceny, and endangering the welfare of a child, police said. He was jailed with a high bail. The criminal mischief charges include one related to preventing an emergency...

Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East​​ ​ Seven Years Since the Kidnapping of the Bishops of Aleppo​ Beloved Brethren and Spiritual Children Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Brothers, we address you with the Pascha greeting, sharing your prayers in your home corners and bending with you the knees of the heart before Christ, who was crucified for our sake, who resurrected from the dead and made us resurrect by His divine Light, wiping away from souls the dust of bitter times and the ashes of desolation...

Would-be defector Wang Liqiang seemed to confirm Australia’s worst fears of Chinese infiltration. The fresh-faced, bespectacled 27-year-old, dubbed the “first Chinese operative to ever blow his cover”, recounted alarming tales of espionage and political sabotage in Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Wang recalled meeting with the head of a spy ring operating freely down under, coordinating a “cyber army” to manipulate public opinion during elections in Taiwan, working with a front company charged with infiltrating Hong Kong universities and media, and ordering the kidnapping of one of the five Hong Kong booksellers known to sell titles critical of the leadership...

A Washington state woman who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Colorado Springs in 2019 has been accused of trying to kidnap a three-week-old baby. The 38-year-old who, according to authorities went by several aliases, was released on a $50,000 bond and is expected to be arraigned Tuesday. Juliette Parker and her teenage daughter are suspected of posing as photographers and drugging a new mother to try and steal her infant. Parker was released Sunday afternoon on a $50,000 bond, reports CBS News' Carter Evans. Since her arrest, authorities tell CBS News more than 10 people say Parker came to their...

CAYCE, S.C. — Cayce Department of Public Safety Chief Byron Snellgrove says Faye Swetlik, the 6-year-old girl who’d been missing for days, has been found dead. His voice trembling, Snellgrove said “it is with extremely heavy hearts we announce we have found the body of Faye Marie Swetlik.” He said they are treating this as a homicide. Another man was found dead in the neighborhood as well. At this time, the investigation into that death is just beginning. Snellgrove said there is no danger to the community This is a breaking news update. Other details will be posted soon

Two Ohio State football players were arrested Wednesday and accused in the rape and kidnapping of a woman earlier this month at their shared Ohio apartment. Jahsen Wint and Amir Riep, both 21, are facing two felony counts of rape and kidnapping. Columbus police alleged that the pair forced a woman to falsely admit on video that she engaged in consensual sex after being assaulted by the two men on Feb. 4, The Columbus Dispatch reported, citing a police affidavit.

Charlotte Moccia, of Springfield, was rescued unharmed after she was apparently abducted after getting off the school bus on Wednesday afternoon. The girl was forced into a dark blue Honda at about 1:26 p.m., "not long after she got off her school bus," according to Massachusetts State Police. Authorities issued an Amber Alert and released photos of Charlotte and the car they said was used in the abduction. At around 7:15 p.m., state police began receiving 911 calls from motorists on the Massachusetts Turnpike who had spotted the car near Brimfield, about half an hour from Springfield. Amanda Disley and...

Colorado mother Cynthia Abcug became an unlikely star on the fringe right last year thanks to a battle with her state’s child-welfare department over custody of her son, which became a cause célèbre among believers of the bizarre pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. According to a heavily redacted police affidavit, Abcug’s daughter told police that her mom was a committed QAnon believer who had been discussing how “people from the Q-Anon group planned to kidnap” the unnamed person. Abcug had obtained a gun of her own, according to her daughter, and talked about a person or group of people “dying” in...

Brady Witcher and Brittany McMillan face murder charges in the Dec. 13 killing of Kellie Ann Hughes, 31, whose body was found in a wooded area in Alabama. A man and woman accused of a weeklong crime spree that included murder, kidnapping, stabbings and theft in at least two states were captured in Missouri, authorities said. Brady Witcher, 41, and Brittany McMillan, 28, were arrested in Hazelwood, Missouri, on Thursday on Alabama warrants for kidnapping and capital murder, according to police in Clarksville, Tennessee. The couple were also wanted on Tennessee warrants for aggravated kidnapping as well as theft. McMillan...

The kidnapping of 14-year-old Jayme Closs from her parent's Wisconsin home more than a year ago captured the nation's attention for weeks but left more questions than answers. For the first time since Jayme returned home on Jan. 10, investigators have released a trove of documents, which are shedding new light on her parents' brutal murder in their home and her 88-day captivity. Up until this point, her ordeal remained a mystery to anyone outside the Closs family and law enforcement. Thousands of investigative reports released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice on Friday revealed disturbing details about the three-month...

Men who kidnapped, chained and assaulted a man appeared in court Tuesday morning, while authorities continue to search for the victim they kidnapped. Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said two men, Kenneth Douglas, 36, and Terrail Jenkins, 38, spotted Kevin Lee, 43, at a Fort Lauderdale McDonald’s some time before noon Tuesday and abducted him. ...Douglas and Jenkins are picked up by video surveillance footage entering a Shell gas station located at 2701 W. Sunrise Blvd. around noon with a chained Lee in tow. According to the Shell gas station employee behind the glass, Douglas asked for an employee that did...

A convicted child kidnapper was sentenced Thursday to life in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox. Following a two-day trial in September, a federal jury in Fort Worth deliberated for less than 10 minutes before convicting Michael Webb, 51, of kidnapping an 8-year-old girl. “We believe that justice has been served in this case. And we are thankful for and agree with the Judge’s decision to sentence him to life in prison. My hope is that this family and this community will find solace in knowing that he will never be able...

MINNETONKA, Minn. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A drag queen exposed his crotch while reading to children at a Minneapolis area Drag Queen Story Hour. On October 17 the Hennepin County Library in Minnetonka, Minnesota, sponsored one of at least 17 Drag Queen Story Hours taking place in libraries throughout the county between September and October. Anne Taylor, a child advocate and witness to the event, comments, "We've heard of stories here and across the U.S. on Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) taking precedence in our local, tax-payer funded libraries. I initially thought this was a hoax and simply unfathomable until I experienced...