Less than 48 hours after a Lakewood woman was found murdered in her apartment, her son was arrested in connection with her death.

Lakewood police are still investigating a motive and have not released how the victim was killed.

The suspect Timothy Baca, has a very lengthy rap sheet that dates back to 1999 and includes several felony assaults.

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Timothy Baca is the son of 65-year-old Bernice Medina and is Lakewood Police’s prime suspect in her murder.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to speak to any of the family members, but it’s never easy no matter what the situation is when you lose a loved one I’m sure,” said Steve Hipwell for Lakewood Police.

According to Hipwell, Friday morning the apartment Baca and Medina shared turned into a crime scene when Media was found dead inside while Baca was nowhere to be found.

“Hopefully that would come out, as to his reasons or motives. Right now we don’t have that,” said Hipwell.

Friday night investigators stopped in a neighborhood not far from Baca’s apartment to talk to a family member about the 41-year-old’s whereabouts.

That’s when they tracked him down at the home by coincidence.

“Once they got inside they attempted to take the suspect in custody, when they did there was a brief skirmish between our two investigators and the suspect. Two investigators suffered minor superficial cuts on their hand as a result of the knife the suspect had,” said Hipwell.

Baca is now being held in the Jefferson County Jail and faces a first degree murder charge.

His family did not want to comment on the case.

Baca is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.

Some tax filers are finding identity theft is getting in the way of their refunds.

Credit cards, medical records, student records, bank loans, and job applications all have a social security number and are all places where thieves look to steal them.

Whoever stole Appolonia Bullard’s social security number used it to file a fake tax return.

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I don’t know how this could have happened,” said Bullard.

The Internal Revenue Service gave her $4,300 return to someone else.

“It’s not their money. It makes me very angry,” said Bullard.

Bullard is one of the many victims of refund fraud.

In the first six months of last year 1.9 million taxpayers were victims of identity theft.

“We’re seeing an increase in this because the criminal element if you will have figured out what a lucrative and easy way of making money this is,” said Professor Bill Kresse.

Bullard now has the paperwork to prove she’s a victim of identity theft and is working toward getting her refund but tax advocate Jacquelyn Crossley Smith says it won’t be easy.

“Unfortunately, identity theft is a traumatic crime,” said Smith.

It could take as long as a year to get a stolen refund back which is why protecting your social security number is critical.

“If you have a social security number, If you have personal information you’re at risk of becoming a victim,” said Smith.

The number one tip to tax filers is to file fast.

“Identity thieves tend to file as early as they possibly can. When the actual taxpayer files it’s too late,” said Smith.

More tips include: never carry your social security card in your wallet, don’t give anyone your number without checking their credentials and once tax preparers finish your taxes, keep your original documents.

Federal officials estimate the IRS could issues some $26 billion in fraudulent tax refunds in the next few years if the agency doesn’t increase security.

Police in Lexington say it appears the same man is behind two robberies this week at the same gas station.

The latest incident at the Shell on Versailles Road happened Saturday night around 9:30 p.m.

According to officers, the robber came in with a butcher knife and demanded money. He took off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

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The suspect is described as a black man, 30 to 40 years old, 5’7”-5’8”. He was wearing black tennis shoes, black pants, a black leather jacket, black gloves, black sunglasses, and a face mask.

The previous robbery at that Shell happened around noon on Monday. That’s when investigators said a guy with a black-hooded sweatshirt, black mask, black jeans and gloves, and armed with a knife did the exact same thing.

If you have any information that could help in this investigation, contact the Lexington Division Of Police.

The state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation has arrested a Poughkeepsie woman on felony identity theft charges.

Police said they arrested Santia Reyes, 24, on Thursday after a lengthy investigation that began in December 2013.

Investigators alleged that Reyes assumed the identity of another person and was able to obtained over $2,500 worth of goods, services, and cash, which caused financial loss to the victim.

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Reyes was charged with first-degree identity theft, a class D felony, in the City of Poughkeepsie. and third-degree identity theft, a class A misdemeanor, in the Town of Poughkeepsie.

Reyes was arraigned in at the City of Poughkeepsie Court and sent to Dutchess County Jail in lieu of $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond.

A 31-year-old convicted sex offender from Tyler, Texas has been indicted on child exploitation charges in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

Anthony Nelson, also known as Flip, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Mar. 26, 2014 and charged with transportation of minors, transportation, and penalties for registered sex offenders.

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According to the indictment, in November and December 2013, Nelson, a previously convicted sex offender, transported individuals, including two minors, across state lines with the intent that they engage in prostitution.

If convicted of all counts, Nelson will receive life in federal prison.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations (DHS-HSI), the Louisiana State Police, the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Shreveport Police Department, the Longview Police Department, the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, the Tyler Police Department, the ATF, the DEA, and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld is prosecuting the case.

A search of a park for a missing 8-year-old girl is a “recovery operation,” although District of Columbia police haven’t given up hope of finding the child alive, Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday.

A day after Relisha Tenau Rudd was last seen on March 1 in the district, suspect Kahlil Malik Tatum bought a carton of 42-gallon contractor trash bags at a store in Washington and was seen in the area of the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Lanier said.

“We can’t ignore the possibility he may have killed her,” Lanier said at a news conference at the park.

Tatum, 51, was a janitor at the city homeless shelter where Relisha lived.

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The girl’s repeated absences from school led authorities last week to look for her, although her family had not reported her missing.

The morning after the search began, police found Tatum’s wife, 51-year-old Andrea Tatum, dead in a motel room in nearby Oxon Hill, Md. Tatum is charged with fatally shooting her in the head. A charging document says Andrea Tatum’s daughter told authorities her mother was having domestic problems with her husband and was contemplating leaving him.

Digital billboards along the East Coast from Maryland to Georgia are displaying photos of Relisha and Tatum. FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said the agency is “casting a wide net” for Tatum.

Santa Fe police dug up a garage floor this week and found bones that may be those of a woman who went missing and was possibly murdered in 1952.

Inez Garcia, then about 27, was reported missing by her husband in 1952. He told police that the couple were drinking at a bar on Water Street and afterward she jumped out of their vehicle, police spokesman Celina Westervelt said. ‘She was never, ever, ever found,” Westerfelt said.The husband, Juan Andres Jose Garcia, is now deceased.

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Police got permission to dig in a garage on the 500 block of Onate Street, off Auga Fria. They started digging on Friday and Tuesday they found bone fragments, possibly from a tibia (shin bone) and forearm bone, and sent them to the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, said Westervelt.

Those bones will now be sent to a lab in Texas to confirm they are human and to check DNA, which could take up to two months, she said.

Two detectives from the Street Crimes Unit took the lead in the excavation, digging mostly by hand, but a backhoe was also used.

Authorities also brought in a cadaver dog last week from the Bernallio County Sheriff’s Office and the dog “hit a couple of different times in different areas” of the garage, said Westervelt.

Inez Garcia’s four children told police she would never just leave and not come back. “There were lots of rumors that he (the husband) buried her in the dirt floor,” said Westervelt.

“Family members said that Garcia would have never left her kids,” said added. The husband reportedly would not let people near the garage, she said. Only one female daughter is believed to be alive and she lives in northern New Mexico. A DNA swab was obtained from her for comparison to any DNA obtained from the bones, according to Westervelt.

The home changed hands in 1996 and after reports that dogs were hanging around the area the homeowners found two large bones. Police checked the garage at that time and those bones turned out to be of animal, said Westervelt.

Detectives recently were going over old cold cases and “the detective thought we should poke around in the garage again,” said Westervelt.

Renter James Douglas, who does body work on cars, said police contacted him about digging a couple of months ago. He has lived in the building, which contains about three apartments, for 20 years.

Asked what he thought about a body possibly being buried under the garage floor for decades, he said, “I really don’t, I really don’t know. When I saw the bones they didn’t even look like human bones.”

A neighbor said a city worker came by last week and asked about the garage. “No city sewer” is spray painted in green in front of the garage.

A Maryland man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy.

Enrique Menendez, of Laurel, Md., was arrested in July 2011 and charged with first degree child sex assault with aggravating circumstance. Police first became involved in the case in May 2009 after the child alleged several attacks by an adult male at several locations in Prince George’s County and one location in Washington DC over the course of one year.

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Menendez was convicted on March 14, wrapping up four years of work by Laurel detectives.

“It’s a perfect example of how perseverance can help solve cases. These detectives never gave up. And now finally, justice for this child,” Chief Richard McLaughlin says.

Detectives with the Huntsville Police Department are asking for assistance in locating a missing person.  Andy Sandoval, of Huntsville, TX, was reported missing on Wednesday, March 26^th, by members of his family.  Mr. Sandoval was last seen leaving his residence on Monday, March 24^th.  Mr. Sandoval was going to a gym in Magnolia but never arrived.  Mr. Sandoval, who is married and the father of two children, never arrived at the gym and has not been in contact with his family since Monday, March 24^th.

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Mr. Sandoval is approximately 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs approximately 120 pounds.  Mr. Sandoval has black hair and brown eyes and is 27 years of age.  Mr. Sandoval was last seen driving a 1999 pearl white Infinity Q45, 4 door, bearing TX license plate DW9Z522.

Chief Kevin Lunsford said, “We have received assistance from the public in the past with similar cases.  We hope the public will help us again in our effort to locate Mr. Sandoval.”

Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty in a the case of a man accused in a Martin County double murder.

Investigators say Orie James Spence, 30, shot his cousin Edgar Hendricks and Edgar’s wife April inside their home on Rockhouse Road in Tomahawk back in November of last year. Police say Spence told them he was having a sexual relationship with April and shot Edgar in self-defense. Investigators say evidence does not support that story.

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Spence entered a not guilty plea to murder charges.