After a week of searching, St. Tammany deputies discovered the body of a missing 27-year-old woman from Alabama.

The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office says Melinda Denny died from multiple stab wounds. Denny was found along a fence line in an open field on Brewster Road in Madisonville.

A last resort effort started early Thursday morning, with more than 150 deputies taking the search for Denny step by step, literally.

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The grid search followed days of helicopter sweeps and ATV coverage in a number of areas along I-12, Highways 1077 and 21, as well as Brewster. That effort was successful, but disappointing for Sheriff Jack Strain.

“Now the investigation goes into the next phase,” he said, “And as I said, almost starts all over again where we piece all of the events together and we believe ultimately will lead to the arrest of Mr. Nall.”

Jonathon Nall, 34, was the man involved in a standoff with authorities over the weekend. He’s also Denny’s boyfriend, who was traveling with her to Texas. The incident happened Saturday, hours after the couple was last seen together by a deputy, who found nothing wrong after checking on them per the request of a family member.

But the moment the standoff ended, Strain said, suspicions grew about what could have happened to Denny. He said Nall did cooperate enough to help lead to Thursday’s discovery, but the work on the case isn’t over.

“This guy did a big show of his apparent mental problems, but now it’s up to the professionals to decide was that a disguise or truly mental incapacity,” said Strain.

Authorities said Denny’s family members are in town, but are too distraught to speak about their loss. Eyewitness News reached out to Nall’s family for comment, but got no response.

Nall’s mother told us earlier this week that she was praying for the Denny family and didn’t think the son she knows could do anything to harm her.

Nall is in the St. Tammany Parish Jail facing charges related to the public suicide attempt. The sheriff’s office has not announced any new charges at this time.

A man received a lengthy prison sentence after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a girl at a Spartanburg County hotel.

Seventh Circuit Solicitor’s Office spokesman Murray Glenn stated that Daniel William Spade, 36, of Manasses, Va., was found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor at the conclusion of a three-day trial on Wednesday.

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Circuit Court Judge Keith Kelly sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

According to Glenn, the assault, took place at a hotel near Duncan, was reported to Spartanburg County Sheriff’s investigators on April 11, 2011, but actually happened months earlier.

The victim had suffered through a series of panic attacks after the crime before disclosing it to a family member.  WHNS-TV reported the suspect in the case would sleep in the same bed with the girl without a shirt on and it made her stomach hurt, according to police.

The victim, now age 7, underwent a forensic interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center and testified during the trial. The victim described the acts perpetuated upon her by Spade, a testament that left a lasting impression on Assistant Solicitor Jennifer Jordan.

“The victim is my hero,” said Jordan. “She courageously shared some of the worst moments of her life with jurors. I hope she can put this horrific event behind her and happily grow into adulthood.”

The child’s therapist and investigating deputy also testified during the trial.

Spade must spend at least 28 years in prison before he is eligible for parole and his name will be added to the sex offender registry.

A woman from Proctor, Vt. has been missing since February 24.

The Sheriff’s Department was notified of a missing person around 3:20 p.m. Wednesday. Thomas Withim of West Rutland, Vt. told police he had not seen or heard from his girlfriend, Maryann Foster, since Monday around 8:30 p.m.

Withim said he called Foster several times throughout the day Tuesday, but the calls were never returned.

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An initial search of Foster’s home revealed she was not there, and she left personal items behind, including her jacket and house keys. The search as well as interviews with neighbors revealed nothing about Foster’s whereabouts nor any suspicious activity in the neighborhood.

Vermont State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations was notified and a ground search was started Thursday with assistance of the Vermont State Police Search and Rescue team, Vermont Fish and Wildlife and the Proctor Fire Department. A search was also conducted by ground teams and a helicopter from the Army National Guard.

The case is being treated as a missing persons case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Rutland County Sheriff’s Office at 802-775-8002 or the Vermont State Police at 802-773-9101.

The search will continue Friday.

Foster is 59-years-old and described as a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes. She stands just over 5 feet tall and weighs around 100 pounds.

Greg and Debbie Mayer have a message for their 17-year-old son, Gregory, who ran away Friday and may be attempting a 2,100-mile cross-country journey back to New Jersey with no phone, ID or money in his pocket.

“If he wants to come back home, we’ll take him back home and try something different,” Greg Mayer said Thursday morning in a phone interview from Lehi, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb where he and his wife last saw their son six days ago.

Last year the Mayers, residents of the Basking Ridge section of Bernards, enrolled their son at Discovery Ranch, a special home in Mapleton, Utah, designed for boys with learning and behavioral issues. Gregory apparently did not want to be there, but his father said he never realized how much his son wanted to leave.

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“You try to do the right thing for your kids. They don’t come with manuals. This reaction we didn’t expect,” he said. “If he doesn’t want to be there that much, we want to find him and take him home.”

The couple has been playing detective, visiting any shelter they can find, leafleting businesses with missing-person fliers, sharing updates on Facebook and hoping the Utah media picks up the story. But that hasn’t been easy, Mayer said, because authorities had been unwilling until late Thursday afternoon to disseminate the news to the media because runaway cases are so common in Salt Lake City.

“We’re running out of options. We’re trying to figure out what to do,” Mayer said.

The couple went to Utah on Feb 19 to visit their son for the weekend. On Friday they took him to Lehi to see a movie at the Thanksgiving Point theater. He excused himself to go to the rest room and never returned, Lehi Police Lt. Darren Paul said Thursday.

Paul said Gregory was reported missing at 7:37 p.m. Authorities are treating this as a runaway case and Gregory’s information has been entered into a national police database.

While Gregory may have left his parents, the 5-foot-11, 140-pound teen with brown hair and blue eyes hasn’t disappeared without a trace.

On Monday he stopped at a Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, but security there couldn’t detain him, Mayer said.

On Monday the couple said they got a call from a Mexican restaurant owner in Orem, Utah, 12 miles south of Lehi, who said that Gregory had been at the restaurant late Saturday night and may have tried to call his father. The man, however, did not know he was missing until he saw a flier.

The restaurant owner said that the young man tried to dial a number with a 201 area code, but the restaurant’s phone doesn’t allow long-distance calls, Debbie Mayer wrote on her Facebook page. The owner said the man walked out of the restaurant looking tired.

“We have not received any other calls. So we are back to wondering where he is and if he is still OK. Please dear God keep him safe!!!” she wrote on her Facebook.

Greg Mayer said he believes his son might be afraid that police will try to send him back to Discovery Ranch, so he’s “spooked.”

“Salt Lake City is an interesting place. A lot of homeless people come here because people are fairly giving. We are wondering if he may have raised the money for a bus ticket,” he said. “I think there also is a lot of bad people out there. I’ve offered a reward, so I’m hoping that someone would rather collect the award than take advantage of this kid.”

Greg Mayer asks anyone with information to call him at 201-805-3867 or contact their local police department.

An Owensboro, Kentucky man pleaded guilty this week in United States District Court to mail fraud in connection with defrauding over $200,000 from an elderly Daviess County, Kentucky couple and agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $220,000, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

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Robert K. Gray, age 49, admitted to defrauding the couple of their retirement fund, by making material misrepresentations about an investment opportunity in the defendant’s construction company, after home improvements to the couple’s residence in excess of $300,000 were completed, an amount that is more than double the assessed value of the property.

Specifically, between January 13, 2010 through August 5, 2010, C.R. paid $338,000 to the defendant Robert Gray and to his brother (not a defendant in the indictment) for renovations to his home which, in 2013, according to the property valuation records kept by the City of Owensboro, was valued at $148,000.

Further, between July 10, 2010 and December 17, 2010, Gray is charged with devising a scheme to defraud C.R. and U.R. of their GE retirement fund in the amount of $220,000. Specifically, Gray asked C.R. to invest in his start-up company, Unlimited Constructors, to fund commercial construction projects Gray said the company had in Madisonville, Kentucky, and on Highway 54 in Owensboro. Gray promised C.R. a substantial return on his investment and promised C.R. he would get all of his investment back, with interest, when in truth and in fact, Gray knew Unlimited Constructors did not have construction projects for a shopping center in Madisonville, Kentucky, or for any commercial development on Highway 54 in Owensboro.

It was further part of the scheme to defraud that an Unlimited Constructors bank account was opened by defendant Gray at U.S. Bank on September 27, 2010. According to the indictment, none of the funds obtained from C.R. were used in construction projects in Madisonville or Owensboro. According to bank records, the account was almost entirely funded by checks drawn on C.R.’s retirement fund, made payable to C.R. and U.R. Gray allegedly used the funds to pay for personal expenses and to purchase vehicles including a 2006 Hummer for $25,000 the day after the account was opened and, approximately two weeks later, to purchase a 2006 Kawasaki motorcycle for $5,000.

If convicted at trial, Gray faced 120 years in prison, a $1,500,000 fine, and a three-year period of supervised release. Gray is scheduled for sentencing before Chief Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. on May 22, 2014, in U.S. District Court in Owensboro.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marisa Ford and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

An arrest warrant has been issued for a state employee busted for looking at child porn at work.

The Laurel County court confirms that they have issued an arrest warrant for Gordon Bowers after he didn’t show up for a court appearance last Friday.

The state environmental scientist was arrested earlier this month at his office. The Attorney General’s Office charged Bowers with four counts of child porn.

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Investigators say Bowers downloaded child porn on state time, on state computers in his state office at the Department of Natural Resources near the Kentucky State Police post in London.

The jail also said Bowers has yet to be arrested on this warrant.

A Franklin County man who previously admitted to downloading numerous images of child pornography was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove sentenced 43-year-old Dennis Hodge for receipt of child pornography. Under federal law, Hodge must serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence and will be on supervised release for 20 years following the completion of his prison term.

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Hodge admitted, during his guilty plea in October 2013, that he downloaded more than 100 images of child pornography using a computer at his Frankfort home. According to the plea agreement, the images depicted children, under 12 years of age, engaged in sexually explicit conduct and many were considered sadistic and violent in nature.

In October 2011, Kentucky State Police seized Hodge’s computer during the execution of a search warrant. Agents later performed a forensic examination of the computer and discovered the child pornography images.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Perrye K. Turner, Special Agent in Charge, FBI; and Rodney Brewer, Kentucky State Police Commissioner, jointly announced the sentence today.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Kentucky State Police. This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.

A former mayor of Martin, Kentucky and her daughter have been convicted on all counts by a federal jury of charges related to a scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration (SSA) and to misapply federal funds.

On Tuesday night, the jury convicted former Martin Mayor Ruth Thomasine Robinson, 69, and her daughter, Rita Christine Whicker, 42, who formerly directed the Martin Community Center. The verdict was handed down after approximately two hours of deliberation following two days of trial. Specifically, the jury convicted the defendants on a total of eight counts of conspiracy, federal program fraud, theft of Social Security disability benefits, and aggravated identity theft. Ginger Michelle Halbert, 42, a volunteer city employee who worked closely with Robinson, pled guilty last week to a charge of theft of government money. Charges against Ethel Clouse, the city bookkeeper, were dismissed at trial.

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Evidence at trial established that from 2006 until January 2013, Halbert, who purportedly worked on a volunteer basis, was secretly being paid with federal funds. The funds used to pay Halbert were intended for the Martin Community Center and the Martin Housing Authority. Some of the money was supposed to fund an after school program for city children. To conceal the scheme, the defendants allegedly arranged for the checks to be made payable to Halbert’s son.

Evidence further established that Halbert, who was receiving social security disability benefits, intentionally failed to notify SSA of her earned income from the city of Martin. Under federal law, anyone who receives disability benefits is limited in the amount of money he or she can receive from another source and all income must be reported to the SSA so it can properly determine eligibility for benefits.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Perrye Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Guy Fallen, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration, Office of the Investigator General, Office of Investigations; and Jack Conway, Attorney General of Kentucky, jointly made the announcement today.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Social Security Administration, and the Attorney General’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Taylor is prosecuting this case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on behalf of the federal government.

Sentencing for Robinson and Whicker is scheduled for July 9, 2014. Halbert is scheduled for sentencing on June 6, 2014. The conspiracy offense carries a maximum of five years in prison; misappropriating money from a federal program carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and aggravated identity theft has a mandatory minimum penalty of two years in prison.

Ames Police Department has not been able to locate Thomas Dooley, 21, who has been missing since Jan. 31.

A man was shot and killed in a Louisville neighborhood Wednesday night.

Police say officers responded to a report of shots fired along Wilson Avenue, just off Dixie Highway, around 11:45 p.m. When they arrived, they found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. EMS took the victim to the University of Louisville Hospital where he died.

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Officials have not identified the victim, and police have not released any information on suspects or a possible motive.