Law enforcement agents from both sides of the river and the U.S. Postal Service have joined in on a search to find an East St. Louis woman who has been missing since April 23.

Melanie Renee Tally, 49, of East St. Louis was last seen leaving her job as a mail handler at the St. Louis Post Office at 17th and Market streets. Employees told Tally’s daughter that her mother left work early that day. She hasn’t been seen since.

Tally’s white 2008 Dodge Avenger with Illinois license plate number A564244 is also missing.

Tiffany Smith, who lives in Madison, said her mother has worked at least 14 years at the postal service and always goes to work.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

“I talked to her earlier that day and she said she wasn’t feeling well,” Smith said. That was the last time she heard from her mother. Smith said she is close to her mother and that they talk every day.

She said her mother has never disappeared before and wasn’t dating. Her bank accounts have not been touched, she said.

Smith filled out a missing person report with East St. Louis Police Department, the St. Louis Police Department who are also working with the U.S. Postal Service because that was the last place she was seen.

Her family has put out flyers in the surrounding areas of St. Clair County, Madison County and St. Louis with the hopes of finding her.

“We love her and really just miss her and would like her to come back home safety,” she said. “She’s not the kind of person that doesn’t go to work.”

Smith said it is hard to search for her when they don’t know where to search.

“If we had the car we could have something to go by,” she said.

Anyone who may have information regarding the disappearance or the whereabouts of Tally is asked to call 911, St. Louis Police at 314-444-5622 or CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.

Atlanta police suspect foul play in the case of a missing man who posted a Craigslist ad for a vintage truck and disappeared after meeting a would-be buyer.

Police found the truck belonging to 44-year-old Vicente Cruz in a motel parking lot with blood inside, WGCL-TV reported Saturday.

“At this point in time we’re very concerned that our missing person could be in danger,” Atlanta Police Lt. Ricardo Vasquez said, according to WSB-TV.

Cruz was trying to sell a black 1989 Ford F-150 pickup.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

He met the potential buyer Monday at an address in northwest Atlanta to look over the vehicle, according to WGCL.

Cruz was with his girlfriend, but she left when he told her he would call her when he was finished.

She never heard from him and reported him missing, the station reoprted.

Police took her missing person report Wednesday, a day after finding the pickup at the motel, near I-85.

Cruz had not checked into the motel and the vehicle was not registered to anyone at the motel, WXIA-TV reported.

A Kansas City, Kansas, father who confessed to killing his 7-year-old son and is accused of feeding the boy’s body to pigs has been sentenced to life in prison on Monday.

His wife, Heather Jones, has already been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 25 years, for her role in Adrian’s death.

Authorities say the little boy was “essentially starved to death” before his remains were found in a pig sty back in 2015, the Associated Press reported.

Prior to his death, the little boy spent the last months of his life confined to their master bedroom and was let out only once a day.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Adrian was found dead on Thanksgiving in 2015. His remains were discovered in a barn on the family’s property.

Wyandotte County Coroner Dr. Alan Hancock said that the boy’s bones had been in the pig enclosure for several weeks by that point. He was believed to have died in September or October 2015.

The disturbing discovery was made after police responded to the home for a domestic violence situation.

While they were on the scene, police were told that the couple’s son had not been seen for some time. The next day, authorities announced they had discovered human remains on the property.

Six other children — all younger than 11 at the time — were removed from the home and taken into protective custody.

Heather Jones told KCTV that Adrian suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder and emotional detachment disorder due to abuse and neglect even before he was removed from his biological mother’s home, which happened several years ago.

Then the abuse got worse.

Dozens of calls were made to children services in both Kansas and Missouri about Adrian, according to the station. The family moved back and forth across the state line several times to keep people from noticing the abuse. He was also home-schooled to keep teachers in the dark.

At the time charges were filed, the Wyandotte County District Attorney referred to the case as one of the worst investigators had ever seen, according to AP.

The child was found to have been physically and emotionally abused, and had “essentially starved to death,” Sheryl Lidtke, a former prosecutor in the case, said back when Heather Jones was sentenced.

“He was horribly abused, neglected and ultimately killed,” she said. “I’m sure his suffering was unbearable.”

Thirty security cameras were set up in the family’s home, and some of them captured videos of the abuse he suffered in his short life.

The victim’s grandmother — who viewed some of the disturbing images — told the Associated Press that the couple kept Adrian naked in a shower stall that they had modified so he was essentially trapped inside and couldn’t escape.

Sometimes, Judy Conway said, they strapped the little boy to an inversion table; another time, he was made to stand overnight in a swimming pool, with water up to his neck.

Conway added that the videos showed Jones occasionally using a broom handle to beat Adrian, and that alarms had been placed on the family’s food so that the hungry child couldn’t eat.

The grandmother said the images were so horrific when she first saw them that she “physically threw up.”

“What they did to my grandson was beyond horrific,” Conway said.

She described Adrian as “a gorgeous little boy” who had “the kindest heart.”

A Magoffin County High School senior was killed in a weekend car crash, officials confirm.

The superintendent of Magoffin County schools confirms that the victim, Madison Allen, was a senior in high school. Grief counselors are there for her classmates as they deal with the tragedy.

http://liarcatchers.com/accident_reconstruction.html

The crash happened around 10 p.m. Sunday night in the Gifford community of Salyersville. Allen was the only occupant of the vehicle.

Paducah police say the missing girl was found and that she is in good health.

PADUCAH, Ky. (LEX 18)– Police in McCraken County are asking for help locating a missing girl.

Mary Conley, 12, was last seen around noon Sunday on Old Mayfield Road in Paducah.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

She has brown hair and eyes, and is five feet tall.

She was last seen wearing maroon stretch pants, a white tank top with a zebra picture, and black Michael Jordan shoes.

If you have seen Mary or know where she may be, call Paducah Police.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man wanted in connection with a fatal shooting Sunday afternoon.

Courtney Darnell Kidd, 32, is wanted for Murder and Robbery.

Around 4:20 p.m. Sunday, May 7, officers responded to an apartment building in the 100-block of Lakeshore drive for a reported shooting. A male victim was located shot inside a vehicle. The man died at the scene and was later identified by the Fayette County Coroner as 26-year-old Jordan Yeast.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Through the course of the investigation, detectives identified Courtney Kidd as the suspect after interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence recovered from the scene. It is believed the suspect and victim knew each other, and detectives continue to investigate what led up to the shooting.

Anyone with information about Kidd’s whereabouts is asked to contact Lexington Police by calling 911.

A Montgomery County Schools security guard has been arrested for the second time in two months on sex abuse charges involving the same child.

Mark Yantsos, 57, was first arrested in April after he was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student. He posted $75,000 bond, and then, according to court documents, starting meeting up with the girl again, violating the conditions of his bond to stay away from her.

The state filed an emergency motion to revoke Yantsos’ bond and he was arrested  Police say that in April, the mother of student at Richard Montgomery High School reported that Yantsos, a security guard at the school, was having a sexual relationship her daughter. Police say Yantsos was prone to giving the girl gifts, including a diamond necklace and iPhone, before the sex abuse started. Investigators said they believe he was grooming her for a sexual relationship.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

According to court documents, once out of jail, Yantsos was seeing the girl almost daily last week into this week, and on one occasion the girl’s friend witnessed the meeting.

Police say the alleged victim in the case was questioned and she told investigators that she had been seeing Yantsos and they had sex on May 2. She also told police he gave her $100 afterwards.

Yantsos used to work for the New York City Police Department, and according to Montgomery County Schools, district officials recently found out that in 1994 he was accused of threatening a female with a revolver. Somehow this wasn’t detected when Yantsos was hired.

A man has been arrested for murder in Mount Sterling.

The Mt. Sterling Police Department wrote on their Facebook page that officers responded to a shots fired call on East Locust Street early Saturday. They say they found a victim who had been shot multiple times.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

The post says the victim was taken to the hospital, where the person died. The identity of the victim is not being released until family are notified.

Police say 53-year-old James Taul was arrested on a charge of first degree murder.

A Waushara County farmer who submitted over $246,606 in fraudulent insurance claim in 2011 is going to prison.

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Gregory J. Haanstad said that Jeffrey Lewke, 39, was sentenced to six months in federal prison for making a fraudulent insurance claim. Upon his release, Lewke will serve an additional six months of home confinement. He was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and $23,799.44 in restitution to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA, through the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), provides insurance to farmers for unavoidable crop losses. The FCIC provides insurance by reinsuring private crop insurance companies for losses claimed by their policy holders.

http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html

Lewke told investigators that during the 2011 crop season, he falsely represented that he irrigated 120 acres of land in Waushara County more times than he actually did. By doing so, he attempted to fraudulently obtain a nearly $63,000 insurance claim.

In total, Lewke acknowledged that he submitted $246,606.53 worth of fraudulent insurance claims during the 2011 crop season.

The Waushara County farmer also admitted that he attempted to fraudulently obtain additional monies through other false crop insurance claims in 2011.

According to court records, Lewke falsely claimed that he was prevented from planting a number of properties due to excessive moisture, when in fact, he never attempted to plant some of those properties. USDA officials discovered that some of those properties were already planted with corn, and in one instance, the property was actually a horse pasture.

In addition, Lewke fraudulently “shifted” his production by claiming that he produced corn in Dodge County, when in fact he produced the corn in Clark County. By so doing, he falsely claimed that he was entitled to another $70,000 of insurance payments for a loss in Clark County.

At Lewke’s sentencing hearing, District Judge Pamela Pepper described the federal crop insurance program at as a “safety net” for farmers in need, from which Lewke stole while he was enjoying the financial success of farming over 12,000 acres in Wisconsin during the 2011 crop season.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Keith S. Alexander