Free Republic

Authorities in Jefferson County announced Wednesday morning that a new task force comprised of 17 police officers is taking over the investigation of a missing pregnant woman last seen Sunday evening. Lt. Col. Steven Meinberg said the task force met for the first time at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The announcement was made at morning press conference that was supposed to be held at the main meeting room of the sheriff’s office. The briefing had to moved outdoors, because the task force has taken over the meeting room to accommodate officers assigned to the unit from five other Jefferson County police...

LONDON, August 12 (IranMania) - There is confusion over the fate of a leading Iranian dissident writer, Akbar Ganji who has gone missing after being let out of jail for medical treatment. Akbar Ganji's family told the BBC that police came to the family house to arrest him on Tuesday night but he was not home and he has not returned since. The authorities are quoted as saying he has gone on the run, but his wife believes he may have been arrested. Human rights groups say Ganji is a political prisoner, and want him freed. He was jailed in...

SACRAMENTO — California's fleet of state-owned vehicles swelled to 70,000 last year, but officials in an aggressive new asset-management push have so far been able to pinpoint only about 40,000. The effort by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State and Consumer Services Agency — which began its review when he took office — marks a first for the state but is highlighting what administration officials say has been years of haphazard and inefficient management by both Democratic and Republican governors. "It was very bad. We were amazed by how inadequate the information (was)," said Fred Aguiar, secretary in charge of the agency...

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- The family of Brooke Wilberger, a 19-year-old college student who vanished from Corvallis 14 months ago, said Wednesday they still want to find their daughter. Brooke's mother, Cammy Wilberger, spoke at a press conference in Corvallis following the announcement that a 39-year-old man jailed in New Mexico on unreleated but similar kidnapping and rape counts had been charged with Brooke's kidnapping and murder. Benton County District Attorney Scott Heiser said investigators had not found Brooke's body but had enough other evidence to charge Joel Patrick Courtney, in custody in Albuquerque, N.M., with aggravated murder. "Our main goal...

Man apparently fell during routine patrol eight days ago. ESTES PARK, Colo. - A hiker found the body of a missing Rocky Mountain National Park ranger Saturday, eight days after the ranger apparently fell during a routine patrol, park officials said. No further information on where Jeff Christensen was found or how long he might have been dead were immediately released. More than 200 searchers, some in helicopters and others with rescue dogs, had been looking for Christensen, 31, in the vast and rugged Mummy Range for the past week. He had told co-workers on July 29 that he was...

Kidnapping, Murder Sweep Nuevo Laredo Friday, August 05, 2005 NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — A city official in charge of public security was gunned down along with another man in the downtown area of the embattled city of Nuevo Laredo on Friday. According to reports, it appeared to be an organized hit involving two cars. Nuevo Laredo, just cross the border from the United States, has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Rival drug cartels have turned the city into a war zone as they battle for control of the lucrative illegal drug market in the U.S....

CORVALLIS, Ore. - KATU News has learned that investigators are about to announce a significant breakthrough in the case involving the disappearance of Brooke Wilberger. Police are not saying specifically if they have made an arrest, but they are giving every indication that Wednesday afternoon they will be sharing information about a major step forward in the case - a breakthrough culminating a year and two months of investigation. Brooke Wilberger's disappearance is a mystery that has loomed in the minds of many for more than a year - how does a 19-year-old woman simply vanish while cleaning lampposts at...

More than 125 people and two helicopters search in national park. Concern for a missing park ranger grew Monday as an intensified search failed for the third day to find any trace of Jeff Christensen. "We've got nothing," said Scott Sticha, information officer with the Rocky Mountain National Park. "If one of the dogs even turns their heads, we're on it. But we've got nothing." More than 125 searchers joined the effort Monday, more than double the number searching the day before, and two helicopters swept overhead. "The only thing that we have ruled out is lightning," Sticha said. "He...

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Two fishermen found a laptop computer at the bottom of a river that belonged to a county prosecutor who has been missing for 3 1/2 months, police said Monday. The laptop, which was missing its hard drive, was found Saturday in the Susquehanna River under a bridge, Bellefonte police said. The fishermen turned it over to state police who determined it belonged to Centre County District Attorney Ray F. Gricar. Authorities had searched the river several times already. Dive teams searched it again Saturday and Sunday but found nothing else. The computer's hard drive had either fallen...

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A plane carrying the former rebel who ascended to Sudan’s No. 2 leadership post has disappeared after losing contact, a Sudanese Cabinet minister said Monday on state television, contradicting earlier reports. The statement came hours after state television interrupted its regular programming to say that Vice President John Garang “has landed safely at a camp in southern Sudan” after his flight from Uganda was reported missing in bad weather on Sunday. Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said Sudan’s president had ordered the country’s air force to search for the aircraft. Garang, 60, is a charismatic figure whose leadership...

Man Admits Committing Sexual Acts On Child SAN DIEGO -- A convicted child abuser [Actually, he was convicted of committing a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14.] arrested in Mexico on suspicion of sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl kidnapped from her Nevada home will apparently serve time in a Mexican prison, authorities said Saturday. Lydia Bethany-Rose Rupp was found at about 6 o'clock Friday night at a homeless shelter after a telephone tip led authorities to an address in Ensenada, FBI spokesperson April Langwell said. The suspect, Fernando Aguero -- also known as "Flaco" -- was arrested...

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK (AP) - Park rangers and staff, aided by area search and rescue teams, searched for a second day Sunday for a missing park ranger. Ranger Jeff Christensen was last seen by his co-workers at 11 a.m. at the Chapin Pass Trailhead off Old Fall River Road on Friday at 11 a.m. Christensen told them he was planning a backcountry patrol to the Lawn Lake Trailhead. He did not contact park staff that evening, although he was carrying a radio, and did not arrive for his shift Saturday. A search began early Saturday with more than 25...

A 13-year-old boy from Stamford, Conn., who disappeared from a men's room in Yankee Stadium, has been found in Queens, police said. Hundreds of police and security guards searched for Majelique Lewis after he vanished during a trip to the bathroom during the seventh-inning stretch of a Yankees-Angels game, police said. His mother immediately reported him missing to security, who notified police about an hour later, about 10:05 p.m. A search of the stadium, including parking lots, restricted areas and locked rooms, was fruitless, police said. Officers also searched nearby fast-food restaurants and train stations without results. But police say...

NEW YORK (AP) _ A 13-year-old boy from Stamford, Conn., was missing Saturday afternoon after he disappeared from a men's room Friday night on his first trip to Yankee Stadium, police said. Hundreds of police and security guards failed to find Majelique Lewis after he disappeared during a trip to the bathroom during the seventh-inning stretch of a Yankees-Angels game, police said.

On July 30, 1975, former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa stood outside the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, impatiently scanning the parking lot.  The man who had made the Teamsters the most formidable labor union in the country was already angry.  It was quarter after two in the afternoon, and the men he was supposed to be meeting for lunch hadn’t arrived yet.  Hoffa was a stickler for punctuality, and it was his understanding that they were to meet at 2:00. Wearing a dark blue short-sleeve shirt, blue pants, white socks, and black Gucci loafers, Hoffa walked...

Police in Philadelphia are searching for a 24-year-old pregnant woman who has been missing for more than a week. Latoyia Figueroa was last seen on the afternoon of July 18 in the area of 59th and Walton. Figueroa, a 5-foot-2 African American, is five months pregnant and has a 7-year-old child. She has long, dark brown hair and brown eyes and two tattoos -- an angel on her right wrist and her daughter's name on her left arm. Police said Figueroa usually makes many calls a day from her cell phone, but her phone has not been used since she...

STAMFORD, Conn. — The night a newlywed vanished from his honeymoon cruise, the sounds of a loud party were coming from his stateroom, followed by male voices arguing on the balcony and then a "horrific thud," a fellow passenger says. The ship was in the Mediterranean Sea when Connecticut resident George Smith IV disappeared more than three weeks ago. No one has been charged, but Connecticut's top federal prosecutor said Tuesday that the 26-year-old's disappearance is being aggressively investigated and reports of blood on the ship raise concerns. The comments are the first by a U.S. prosecutor on the case...

Reports are slowly filtering out about a plan by Islamics to detonate several nuclear bombs around the continental United States. Osama bin Laden has lovingly named this attack “America’s Hiroshima.” His logic for giving his plan this name is that the United States is the only world power to use an atomic weapon against an enemy and based on that, it is legal and within Islamic law for him to use such weapons against the American people. According to reports obtained from captured Al Qaeda agents and documents they were carrying, several nuclear devices may have been brought across the...

Sierra Turner-James, who turns 3 next month, was taken early Sunday by Michael James, police said. The 2-foot-5, 60-pound Sierra was last seen on Dorado Drive in Kissimmee and is believed to be in danger, authorities said. She was last seen wearing a pink T-shirt and a pink skirt. Michael James, whose relationship to the child wasn't immediately announced, is 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds. From the Kissimmee Police Dept. News Release: ….The suspect, identified as 28 year old Michael Ruben James, allegedly broke into the apartment through a kitchen window. The noise of the breaking glass alerted an adult male...

Amber Alert Issued for 8 Year old Nevada Girl Posted: Saturday July 23, 2005 10:06 AM CT The Lion county Sheriff's office and the state of Nevada issued the Amber Alert after the child was abducted Friday. Lydia Bethany-Rose Rupp 8 year old female. She's 4 feet 9 inches tall, 85 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. The suspect is Aguerro, Fernando P. (AKA Gonzales, Fernando) who is a Hispanic male approximately 48 years of age. He is 6 foot 1 inch tall and 175 pounds. He has black and gray hair and brown eyes. He's slim build with...