The Portland Police Bureau’s Missing Persons Unit is asking for the public’s help to a missing 22-year-old man who was last seen in May at his downtown residence.

Police said Jesse James Preedit disappeared May 7, about a week after he was discharged from a hospital for self-inflicted injuries.

Police investigators have little new information about Preedit’s disappearance and are asking for the public’s help find him.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Preedit is white, about 6-foot-1, 180 pounds with scars on his wrists. Investigators have been told that Preedit identifies himself as a female.

Anyone seeing Preedit is asked to call 911 so officers can check his welfare. People with non-emergency information about Preedit may contact Det. Lori Fonken, 503-823-1081; by email, lori.fonken@portlandoregon.gov.

With just one arrest, Lexington Police closed the book on 44 cases of cars being broken into at places like gyms and several area parks and it was a sharp-eyed off duty Lexington police officer that brought these cases to a close.

Police say Jeffery Chenoweth, of Washington County, commutes to Lexington where he works pouring concrete. According to investigators, he’s been quite busy in his off hours as well.

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Since January, police say he’s broken into 44 vehicles at places like LA Fitness, Wellington, Masterson Station, Shillito Parks and Legacy Trail.

Detectives were racking up so many cases of smash and grab thefts, that a Lexington Police Sergeant set up a camera in one of the parks and it wasn’t too long after that, that they identified their suspect’s vehicle and got a partial plate.

“A couple of weeks later, I was working out LA Fitness on Palumbo and just happened to observe a vehicle matching the description and the partial plate,” says Detective Nate Williams

Det. Nate Willliams says 36-year-old Jeffrey Chenoweth would stake out parking lots, sitting up high in his green Ford Expedition. When he saw a woman leave her car without her purse, he’d pull up beside the car, open one of his doors, bust the window and grab the bag.

Williams is confident Chenoweth was on the prowl again.

But for now, his alleged side job of hitting five to six cars a week is over.

Police are on the scene of a suspected murder-suicide in Jackson county.

Deputy coroner Lonnie Hacker tells LEX 18 that he was called to an address on Sand Gap School Road in Sand Gap, Kentucky. around 1:40 p.m.

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He discovered two people, a male and female, deceased at the address.

The identities or exact cause of death has not been released at this time, however the deputy coroner tells us it appears to be murder-suicide.

A Floyd County man has been sentenced to life in the murder of his 2-year-old nephew and abuse of the boy’s four siblings.

33-year-old Jason Dickerson was found guilty of murder and four counts of criminal abuse, and received the maximum sentence.

He and his wife, Gladys Dickerson, were both accused in the death of 2-year-old Watson Adkins in 2011.

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A Floyd County daycare was forced to close its doors after state officials say workers didn’t report suspicious injuries to Watkins and his sibling. Officials say employees at Dinosaur Playland Daycare noticed injuries to the kids, but never reported it.

Every year, our Criminal Justice Information Services Division gives its Latent Hit of the Year Award to latent print examiners and/or law enforcement officers who solve a major violent crime using the Bureau’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS.

This year, we honor Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Trooper Christopher Dolan, a latent print examiner in the MSP’s Crime Scene Services Section, for the role he played in identifying the killer in a 1983 cold case.

The victim, 29-year-old Rodney Wyman, and a co-worker had traveled from Connecticut to Malden, Massachusetts, to install windows at a construction site in the summer of 1983. On the night of August 22, the two men settled down in their motel suite to watch television. They heard a noise in a back room and Wyman got up to check it out. As he approached the door, a gunman fired a fatal shot into Wyman’s chest. The gunman, demanding money from Wyman’s co-worker, brutally attacked the man and then began removing valuables from the room. But when he tried lifting the television set, a tamper alarm was activated and two hotel employees rushed to the room. One of the employees saw a man exit the rear window of the suite and chased him, but the intruder escaped.

The motel room was processed by the MSP’s Crime Scene Services Section (CSSS). More than 23 latent prints were recovered—several were deemed of no value, and others were identified as those of the deceased victim and employees of the hotel. The remaining prints were searched against the Massachusetts Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which was relatively new at the time. There were no results produced, and eventually, the case went cold

But 27 years later, the MSP—looking to apply newer investigative technologies to cold cases—requested a reassessment of the latent evidence from the Wyman homicide investigation. That task fell to Dolan, who first searched two latent images collected from the television set against the state AFIS, with negative results. Then, he requested a search of the FBI’s IAFIS, and in less than 10 minutes, received a response containing possible candidates for comparison purposes. Dolan examined the evidence and positively identified the prints to the first candidate in the IAFIS response—Shawn Marsh.

Based on this identification, the MSP reopened the case. Investigators located Marsh and requested additional prints from him, which resulted in an additional match to palmprint evidence recovered from the crime scene. Marsh was indicted in September 2011, pled guilty in April 2013, and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

Turns out that some of Marsh’s fingerprints had been available in the state AFIS at the time of the murder. However, the database was fairly new to the MSP and those processing crime scene evidence at that time considered the prints of the right and left little fingers of limited value, so it was common practice to exclude them from the overall AFIS database in order to conserve resources. Why is that an important fact? Because the original latent prints lifted from the television set in the motel room crime scene came from a left little finger.

The full set of Marsh’s fingerprints contained in IAFIS—which ultimately led to his identification—came from another arrest.

But the lesson was learned, and today, the Massachusetts State Police train law enforcement officers to collect prints from all 10 fingers when processing suspects.

A Wayne County man is behind bars in Tennessee charged with the murders of two men just across the state line.

34-year old Joshua Pyles is charged in connection with the murders of 58-year old Dan Dowdy and his 22-year old son Cody.

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The two were found dead inside their business, the Sugar Shack, on Wednesday.

Pyles is behind bars in Tennessee. He was arrested with the help of the Wayne County Sheriff Thursday.

Police investigating the slaying of Armada teen April Millsap on Tuesday said they are “zeroing in” on a suspect and will continue to work on the case until it is resolved.

The Armada Homicide Task Force has been working around-the-clock since April’s body was found Thursday night on the Macomb Orchard Trail, but their investigation is now narrowing in its focus, said Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw.

“We are pretty confident that we are zeroing in on the person who did this and the person knows that as well,” Shaw said.

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Investigators continue to speak with April’s family and her boyfriend, but they are not considered suspects.

In addition, police say they no longer are looking for a gray van that had been reported to be in the area on the night of the slaying. But they do want to locate a man who was riding a small, dark-colored motorcycle that may have been riding on the trail.

The body of 14-year-old April Millsap, a student at Armada Middle School, was found July 24 in a drainage ditch near the popular recreation trail near the Armada Department of Public Works garage. She had gone to take her dog for a walk and never returned home.

A pair of joggers noticed her border collie Penny by the trail and followed the dog to the body. Police have not revealed how the teen was killed, but friends and family members have said she was beaten to death.

The task force was established within hours of her body being discovered and is made up of law enforcers from Armada, Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, the FBI and other agencies. They set up shop in the Armada Schools administration building.

Armada Police Chief Howard Smith on Monday night appeared before the village board with an update on the investigation. He said the task force will operate in shifts now as some of the members have to return to other duties.

Smith said analysts with computers are working to process more than 400 tips that have come in from the public. “The support we have has been overwhelming,” he said.

While the task force’s work becomes more structured, the changes do not mean the team has run out of strong leads.

“We are in this for the long haul,” Shaw said. “We have compiled a lot of information. We are a heck of a lot closer (to making an arrest) than we were on Thursday.”

A funeral service will be held Friday morning at St. Mary Mystical Rose Church in Armada. Visitation is Thursday in Tiffany, Young and Hauss Funeral Home, Armada.

Police still want to talk with anyone who was at or near the Macomb Orchard Trail between the hours of 5 and 8 p.m. last Thursday, or if they saw April or her dog in the village in that same time frame.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. Information may be phoned in to the MSP hotline at 877-616-4677.

A Butler county man has been arrested on charges of child abuse and murder.

27-year-old Jonathan Waters of Roundhill, Ky. was found hiding in his bedroom closet. He was indicted in Warren County Circuit court and charged with murder and criminal abuse in the second degree.

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The charges stem from the death of Waters’s infant son in October 2013. Warren County Sheriff’s deputies were assisted by Butler County Sheriff’s deputies in the arrest.

He is being held in the Warren County Regional Jail on a $250,000 cash bond.

Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputies are looking for a wanted man. They said Brent Stewart was caught trying to burglarize a home, then caused a four hour man hunt Thursday afternoon.

Investigators said Stewart is a parole violator who may also be involved in a string of burglaries in the county.

LEX 18 News spoke with Stewart’s Uncle, George Barnes, who is the victim in the latest burglary.

“I hope they catch him and put him back in the pen,” said Barnes. When it comes to his nephew, Barnes said this case was the last straw.

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“He don’t need to be getting back out because he is never going to learn,” said Barnes.

Barnes said this case all started on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. when he stopped at his home on Mackville Road. When Barnes got out of his truck he said he noticed someone inside his garage.

“Seen a pair of legs going out the window of the garage, so I know somebody was breaking in. I got out got my gun and I seen him running, so I shot,” said Barnes.

At the time Barnes said he didn’t know who it was, however as the burglar ran into the woods, he called 911. He said family that lives nearby told Barnes they saw Stewart in the area.

Deputies said after Stewart ran away, they followed him with the canine unit, however he eventually jumped into a blue Jeep with three other men.

“We felt like that he got in a vehicle either with an accomplice or he had called someone to get him,” said Sheriff Ernie Kelty.

Then about 30 minutes later, across the street from the house, the Jeep was caught on camera at a convenience store.

In the video the Jeep passed the store and turned, then seconds later deputies sped by and kept going straight. The Sheriff said they searched for hours, but had no luck.

“We would like to know who owns the Jeep, who all else was inside that Jeep and where it went,” said Kelty.

Investigators said they want to question Stewart about several other active burglary cases in Mercer County. The Department of Probation and Parole is also looking for Stewart for violating the conditions of his release.

If you know where Stewart is, or have information about the Jeep, please call the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department at (859) 734-4221.

An Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department police dog was involved in his third major drug bust of the year this past Monday.

“Thor” is a canine officer who detected what led to 125 pounds of pot during a traffic stop around 7 p.m. Monday.

It occurred on eastbound Interstate 40 and Meridian.  Two people from Georgia have been charged with drug smuggling.

Sheriff’s Spokesman Mark Myers says the driver was pulled over initially for straddling the center line.

“What you’ll find in a lot of these cases is people, who are carrying drugs, many times do the simplest traffic violations,” said Myers. “You know, they’re speeding or they change lanes without signaling, and it leads to an arrest like this.”

http://liarcatchers.com/drugdogsweeps.html

Myers says “Thor” was also involved in an arrest during a traffic stop in February for record amounts of meth, and in March, for a record amount of heroin that had a street value of more than $700,000.

“Thor, I tell folks, is just a drug-sniffing rock star,” Myers said.