Over 80 people may have had their debit and credit card information stolen after police arrest an employee at the Culver’s in Belvidere for identity theft.

28-year-old Curtis Peck is out on bond. Police say they had noticed an increase in the number of identity thefts since December 2013. Earlier this week, police searched a home in Rockford. They found an electronic card writer, credit cards, and drug paraphernalia.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

Investigators believe Peck was getting credit and debit card information while he worked the drive-thru window at Culver’s in Belvidere. He was the assistant manager there. The investigation remains ongoing.

Police are reminding us to check our statements for any unauthorized transaction. If you notice anything, they say to contact our credit or debit card companies.

The following describes a modified technique for obtaining tool mark impressions utilizing polyvinylsiloxane impression material. Advantages of the polyvinylsiloxane materials include ease of use, accuracy, and dimensional stability over time.

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1. Obtain general, midrange, and closeup photographs without and with scale as necessary of the tool mark and its associated location (Figure 2).
2. Place a soft orthodontic wax rope as a border around the tool mark to control the flow of excess impression material and block out any undercuts that could interfere with smooth removal of the impression from the surface (Figure 3).
3. Place a small hole in the center of the fingerprint card (Figure 1).
4. Lightly mist the tool mark area with Mizzy silicone emulsion spray (Figure 3).
5. Place an AccuTrans cartridge in the automix dispenser and inject material into the tool mark (Figure 4).
6. Place the fingerprint card over the tool impression and depress it into the impression material until it contacts and lightly adheres to the orthodontic wax (excess impression material will extrude from the hole in the fingerprint card). Note: polyvinylsiloxane material flows more effectively into surface details when a slight force is applied to it (Figure 5).
7. Check for complete “set” of the material by periodically placing a fingernail into the material that has extruded from the hole in the fingerprint card. The material is completely “set” once the fingernail indentation in the material rebounds to normal contour immediately after removal of the fingernail from the material.
8. Place case number, orientation marks, date, and a sketch of the location (door, window, etc.) on the card prior to its removal from the surface (Figure 6).
9. Remove the impression from the surface and remove the wax rope from the impression for possible re-use on another impression (Figure 7).
10. Pour the impression in dental stone or acrylic if necessary for further evaluation.

From: Tool Mark Impressions by Steven L. Petersen, CCSI, and Shawn L. Naccarato, DDS/CCSA

A Virginia Beach teenager with health issues was found Friday, after being missing for just a few hours.

Tonya Borman with Virginia Beach Police said 19-year-old Jessica Ferdinand went missing around 3 p.m. in the area of Runaway Bay, Bonney Road area.

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A search party on bicycle located the girl, hiding near the area where she was last scene.

A woman accused of attacking two elderly women and stealing their purses pleaded not guilty Friday in a Multnomah County courtroom.

Tiffany Denise Smith was arraigned on three counts of identity theft, two counts of robbery and one count of burglary and assault. Her next court date is March 7.

Portland Police arrested Smith on Jan. 14 on an unrelated warrant from Clackamas County.

Their investigation began on Jan. 7, when a 89-year-old woman named Marge reported the suspect grabbed her purse and threw her to the ground. Marge received significant bruising and cuts on her left eye and knees and spent the night in the hospital.

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During the course of their investigation, police say another woman, who is 90 years old, also had her purse stolen by Smith. The suspect knocked on the victim’s door and pushed past the woman when she answered the door, stole her purse from the dining room table and took off.

Smith has been arrested several times before for ID theft, attempted prostitution and a number of probation violations.

A 46-year-old man missing from St. Francois County has medical problems, say police who are asking for the public’s help in finding him.

Virginia Beach Police are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing person at-risk.

A Lexington business owner and an employee have been charged for trafficking in synthetic cannabinoids by the the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

ABC said a total of 2,576 packets of various brands weighing about 48.6 lbs. with a street value of $440,890, were found at the Dollar Store Plus on Lima Drive, at the business owner’s home and at an employee’s home.

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ABC investigators and Lexington Police detectives executed a search warrant on Jan. 16 at the Dollar Store Plus (Deya Inc.), an ABC-licensed business owned by Ahmad Abdul.

Detectives said they had made two controlled buys of synthetic cannabinoids from the owner and an employee, Hassan Thabata, in December 2013 and January 2014.

AbdulJaber was present and consented to a search of his home in Lexington, where a large quantity of synthetic cannabinoids was discovered. Thabata, also consented to a search of his house in Lexington, where another large quantity was recovered.

Detectives cited AbdulJaber and Thabata for trafficking in synthetic cannabinoids.

ABC will charge Deya Inc. with the administrative violation of KRS 244.120, or Disorderly Premises. If found guilty, the business would face the suspension or revocation of its license by ABC.

Synthetic Cannabinoids are listed as a controlled substance under KRS Chapter 218A. The substance imitates marijuana but is known to cause more hallucinogenic effects on the user.

“The use of these substances is very dangerous, and the ability for ABC to work with local law enforcement to help get these cannabinoids off the street is important,” said ABC Commissioner Fredrick Higdon.

Manufacturers of synthetic cannabinoids apply a chemical combination to plant materials and then market them under the guise of incense, often labeled “not for human consumption.”

“Retailers and street level dealers know that this product is being used by the consumers as an alternative to marijuana,” Higdon said. “The individual packets are labeled with names such as ‘Joker,’ ‘Caution’ and ‘Scooby Snax.’ One of the many dangers of synthetic drugs is that the manufacturer can put any sort of harmful chemicals they want in them. A consumer may never know what exactly it is they are inhaling or ingesting.”
Anyone who becomes aware that these items are being sold should contact their local law enforcement agency immediately.

The Fayette County Coroner’s office said Friday evening a person was pronounced dead at the scene of a search in the Kentucky River in connection to a homicide investigation.

The cause of death and an identity are listed as pending. The Coroner’s Office said more information will be released Saturday.

Lexington Police said earlier Friday they found what they were searching for in the Kentucky River Friday afternoon, but did not clarify what that was. However, the coroner’s office had been called out to the scene on the Kentucky River off Old Richmond Road near Riptide Restaurant Bar.

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Lexington Police did not release many details about the search and did not say what case the search was connected with, but did say it is connected to an ongoing homicide investigation.

On Dec. 31, investigators were out in the same area looking for the body of missing Lexington man, Alex Johnson, who has not been seen or heard from since Dec. 20. Johnson was on the phone with his girlfriend at his home in Lexington when he hung up the phone to answer a knock on the door. That’s the last time anyone heard from Johnson.

Two people have been arrested in connection to Johnson’s disappearance, which started as a missing person’s case but became a kidnapping and homicide investigation. Robert Markham Taylor, who goes by Mark Taylor, was arrested Wednesday in Pharr, Texas, blocks away from the Mexican border, accused of kidnapping and murdering Johnson.

Taylor was scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

LEX 18 has learned Taylor worked at Riptide as a bartender for several months in the past.

Timothy Ballard, who goes by Tiny, was arrested Monday and is in the Fayette County Detention Center charged with complicity to kidnapping resulting in the death of a victim, and tampering with evidence. Ballard’s bond has been set at $253,000 and he has asked for a public defender.

Lexington Police have not given any details as to how the investigation led to the suspects and their connection to the crime.

Lexington Police say Taylor had moved to Lexington a few years ago, and had befriended Johnson. They did not comment further on how the men were connected.

Lexington Police had sent the Pharr Police Department a picture of Taylor and a possible location.

LEX 18 learned Taylor ran when Pharr Police went to check out the motel where he was staying. Taylor was later found near the border and police say he had several pounds of marijuana in his car when he was arrested. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office will arrange Taylor’s extradition, after he responds to the drug charges in Texas. The whole process could take three to five months.

The Fayette County Coroner’s Office confirms they have been called out to the scene where Lexington Police are conducting a search related to a homicide investigation.

Investigators are out on the Kentucky River near Riptide Restaurant Bar where a search has been taking place Friday morning.

Lexington Police did not release many details about the search and did not say what case the search was connected with, but did say it is connected to an ongoing homicide investigation.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

On Dec. 31, investigators were out in the same area looking for the body of missing Lexington man, Alex Johnson, who has not been seen or heard from since Dec. 20. Johnson was on the phone with his girlfriend at his home in Lexington when he hung up the phone to answer a knock on the door. That’s the last time anyone heard from Johnson.

Two people have been arrested in connection to Johnson’s disappearance, which started as a missing person’s case but became a kidnapping and homicide investigation. Robert Markham Taylor, who goes by Mark Taylor, was arrested Wednesday in Pharr, Texas, blocks away from the Mexican border, accused of kidnapping and murdering Johnson.

LEX 18 has learned Taylor worked at Riptide as a bartender for several months in the past.

Taylor was scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

Timothy Ballard, who goes by Tiny, was arrested Monday and is in the Fayette County Detention Center charged with complicity to kidnapping resulting in the death of a victim, and tampering with evidence. Ballard’s bond has been set at $253,000 and he has asked for a public defender.

Lexington Police have not given any details as to how the investigation led to the suspects and their connection to the crime.

Lexington Police say Taylor had moved to Lexington a few years ago, and had befriended Johnson. They did not comment further on how the men were connected.

Lexington Police had sent the Pharr Police Department a picture of Taylor and a possible location.

LEX 18 learned Taylor ran when Pharr Police went to check out the motel where he was staying. Taylor was later found near the border and police say he had several pounds of marijuana in his car when he was arrested. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office will arrange Taylor’s extradition, after he responds to the drug charges in Texas. The whole process could take three to five months.

The former owners of two now-defunct durable medical equipment companies were sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,940,043.84 in restitution by U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn, II for conspiracy, health care fraud, submitting false claims, and wire fraud, announced David J. Hale, United State Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

Yunior Lopez, age 36, of Miami, Florida, and Arturo Esquivel, age 42, of Hialeah, Florida, through their corporations, Universal of Work Services and Steel Quality Medical, submitted false and fraudulent claims totaling approximately $4 million to Medicare Services for products that were not authorized and were not provided to patients. Between September 2007 and November 2008, Lopez and Esquivel submitted claims on behalf of Florida patients, living and deceased, who were purportedly treated by Kentucky physicians, when in fact, neither the patients nor the physicians had any knowledge of one another.

Moreover, investigators learned that the products, including surgical dressings that were billed to Medicare, were never provided by Universal of Work Services and Steel Quality. Search warrants executed on Universal of Work Services, located on Bishops Lane, and Steel Quality Services, Inc., located on Envoy Circle, found both businesses were almost devoid of any products it claimed to have been providing. Further, Lopez and Esquivel concealed their ownership in the companies by enlisting “nominee” owners. Lopez and Esquivel were charged in a 13 count federal indictment on August 1, 2011, and were sentenced Friday, January 17, 2014.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lettricea Jefferson-Webb, and it was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.