Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced today that on Dec. 18, Dustin Whitten of Morris, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for his involvement in an insurance fraud scheme.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in May 2009, Ryan Geddes of Litchfield transferred to Whitten a residential property located in Old Forge, N.Y., while Geddes continued to use the property and pay the mortgage and maintenance expenses.  At the time, Geddes was being sued by a creditor who was seeking to collect a debt and identify Geddes’ assets.  In March 2011, Whitten and Geddes made arrangements for an insurance company to issue a policy on the New York property in Whitten’s name.  On July 4, 2011, after a bankruptcy court meeting about compensating Geddes’ creditors, the New York property was destroyed in a fire.  In Sept. 2011, Whitten swore out an insurance claim on the property, representing himself as the owner and seeking compensation in the respective amounts of $515,038.50 for the destroyed structure and $92,974.47 for personal property allegedly lost in the fire.  The claim was eventually denied by the insurance company.

Whitten and Geddes have both admitted that the purpose of the scheme was to shield the insurance proceeds from Geddes’ creditors.

http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html

On April 17, 2015, Whitten pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

On April 28, 2015, Geddes pleaded guilty to charges related to this scheme and separate fraud schemes.  He is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2016.

A man has been arrested in the disappearance and murder of an Adairville woman.

George Walker, 20 of Adairville, was arrested early Wednesday morning, Dec. 23, 2015, after the body of 23-year-old Allison Walker, also of Adairville, was found in the Red River in south Logan County.

Allison Walker was listed as a missing person on Tuesday, Dec. 22, when she was reported as missing from her residence on Conn Road in Adairville.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Her body was found around midnight in the Red River by the Sheriff’s Department, with the assistance of the Logan County Search and Rescue squad.

According to a police report, “foul play” was suspected in Allison Walker’s death and her body was sent to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.

During the course of the investigation, a person of interest was identified and later taken into custody by the Logan County Sheriff’s Department.

George Walker was then arrested on charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence.

According to a press release from the sheriff’s department, the investigation is still ongoing and more information will be released as it becomes available.

This is the second murder to take place in Logan County this year.

The other occurred on Aug. 26 when the Logan County Sheriff’s Department responded to a homicide at 2540 Ellis Road in Russellville and found 65-year-old Robert Wetton unresponsive inside a barn at his home.

No arrests have been made in that case.

The Walker murder occurred less than a week before the anniversary of the murder of 36-year-old Brad Rigney in Russellville. He was killed on Dec. 28, 2013. The suspect in that case, Gerald Allen Benjamins, is set to go to trial for murder on February 22.

A 33-year-old Pleasant Grove man has pleaded guilty to reduced child sex charges in a case that prosecutors say involved five children.

The Daily Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1U2qMSu ) that Andrew Bishop pleaded guilty Monday in 4th District court to amended charges including first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse and second-degree sexual abuse of a child.

Bishop was arrested in September and had faced more than 80 counts of sexual abuse.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Sentencing was scheduled Feb. 1.

Bishop has been ordered by the court to have no contact with any of the five alleged victims.

One Washington County woman will have to stand trial for soliciting donations for a sick child.

The alleged scam was social media based. 63-year-old Frankie Louise Yates of Springfield is out on bond accused of running a false Facebook charity soliciting funds to help a sick child who does not exist. Wes Nicholas of California was one of the victims of Yates’ social media scam to the tune of 700 dollars in cash and gifts.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

“Just sadness, that somebody would do something like that, and keep it up for as long as she did,” Nicholas told LEX 18’s Michael Berk.

Staffers at the State Attorney General’s Office believe as many as 70 people in the US and Canada donated money and gifts totaling $16,000.

Yates’ false charity dates back many years but Nicholas only began donating in April.

“I never gave a second thought of getting it back, and I don’t think there’s a chance in you-know-where of getting any of the money back.  It’s gone,” said Nicholas.

A grand jury has indicted Yates on one charge of Theft by Deception.

The trial date hasn’t been set.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension says the family of 22-year-old Joseph Tyler Delott have reported him missing.  Delott has not been seen or heard from since December 9, 2015.  The Savage, MN Police Department has been actively searching for Delott.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

According to his family, Delott has a history of depression and drug use.  He’s described as 6 feet 2 inches tall, 160 pounds, with brown eyes, and brown hair.

If you have any information, you’re asked to contact the Savage Police Department at 952-567-2012.

One person is dead after a single vehicle crash in Knox County.

The Knox County Coroner’s Office says a 20-year-old male died in the crash.

The initial investigation indicates that the driver of a 2000 Chevrolet pickup west bound on Ky 718 when she failed to negotiate a curve and crossed into the east bound lane of travel striking a guardrail.  The truck then struck a tree with the back end causing it to overturn. The passenger in the vehicle, Ryan J. Baker, of Flat lick was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

http://liarcatchers.com/accident_reconstruction.html

The driver was taken by ambulance to the Knox County ARH Hospital where she was treated for minor injuries and was then released.

A man has been charged with arson after police say he set fire to some disturbing items in his apartment building.

According to WAVE 3 News, 61-year-old James Silver was arrested on Monday after he allegedly threw his diaper and feces at his neighbor’s door and set the items on fire.

Silver’s arrest report states he was involved in a dispute with the neighbor, thus resulting in the flaming excrement.

The fire was set in the common stairwell of the building. The stairwell is the only access to one of the other apartments.

http://liarcatchers.com/arson_investigation.html

A 39-year-old man was arrested for identity theft after allegedly buying items to manufacture methamphetamine with another person’s license.

According to the State Sheriff’s Chiefs Enforcement Narcotics Team, Darrin Thomas, of Baldwin, was charged with one count of identify theft.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

The investigation started in August of 2015 in Newaygo County. Detectives tell us that Thomas was allegedly using another person’s ID to purchase items commonly used to make meth.

Thomas is currently behind bars in the Lake County jail on unrelated charges.

A shooting in northern Kentucky Tuesday evening has left one man dead and a police officer wounded, according to WLWT in Cincinnati.

Kenton County dispatch told WLWT that the officer was shot in the arm along Elm Street, not far from a Family Dollar store. The officer, whose name is not being released, is expected to survive and is currently stable, according to Cincinnati TV stations.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

KSP says the shooting started after a Ludlow police officer made some kind of traffic stop in a shopping center around 7:30 p.m., but it’s still unclear who fired the first shot.

According to state police, that officer was wearing a body camera but the footage has not been reviewed yet.

The suspect’s name has not been released.

Search and rescue crews in Harrison County say they recovered the body of a missing man on a river bank Tuesday evening.

Crews were called out to River Road around 7 p.m. Within an hour, they had found the missing 33-year old man’s body on the edge of the South-Fork River, across the street from Randy’s Recycling Center.

Rescuers say the man lived in the area and was last seen around 5 o’clock Monday walking along River Road.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

They say they’re not sure if the man had a medical emergency or fell, but the coroner’s office says he likely drowned.

No other information has been released.