Austin police have identified skeletal remains as those of a man reported missing in 2009.

Gabriel Sanchez was reported missing by his family members on June 18, 2009. He was 41 at the time.

Sanchez was last seen on Friday June 12, 2009. His vehicle was located unoccupied and was impounded on Sunday, June 14, 2009.

In May of this year, a work crew discovered human skeletal remains in a field near W. Parmer Lane and Dessau Road. Austin Police Department detectives were recently notified that these remains have been positively identified through DNA as Sanchez.

The cause or manner of death is undetermined, however the death is considered suspicious.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
The investigation into this case continues. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Cold Case/Missing Persons Unit at 512-974-5250 or Crime Stoppers at 512-472-TIPS or text “Tip 103” + your message to CRIMES.

The coroner has released the name of the man shot and killed in the parking lot of a Lexington adult nightclub.

Curtis Simmons, 33, of Lexington, suffered a fatal gunshot wound early Wednesday morning. A witness says the shooting stemmed from an argument that started inside Divas Gentlemens Club on Russell Cave Road and spilled into the parking lot.

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Lexington police continue to investigate.

The developer of a downtown Roseville restaurant that closed without warning this week is listed as a missing person by two different police departments, the Roseville Police Department reported Tuesday.

Steve Pease, who opened Sammy’s Rockin’ Island Bar & Grill in September 2012, was last seen Oct. 28 and reported as missing by co-workers to Roseville police three days later, public information officer Dee Dee Gunther said.

In addition, the Roseville Police Department has been told Pease’s family reported him as missing to the Ft. Bragg police department in the same timeframe, she said. It’s not clear yet why the report was made there, she said, adding she’s hoping to receive more information today.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Pease’s co-workers told police they didn’t think foul play was involved in Pease’s disappearance. “Just that it was unusual for him to not keep in touch with friends and family,” she said. “It did appear he’d left voluntarily, wherever he’s gone.”

She said Pease is entered in the statewide database for missing persons, but no sign of him has turned up yet. He’s not being sought by law enforcement for any other reason, she said.

Gunther said she’d assume Pease’s disappearance is connected to the closure of the restaurant at 238 Vernon St., which caught city of Roseville officials and local merchants off guard. A sign posted there Monday said the restaurant was temporarily closed for unforeseen circumstances, other media have reported.

Pease, who owns the restaurant building, bought it and formed Innova Restaurant Concepts LLC with partner John Yip to open the restaurant there, bearing the name of rocker Sammy Hagar.

The developers received a loan from the city’s economic development corporation to do so, and city officials at the time touted the restaurant as a good sign for downtown revitalization.

A man was killed Tuesday in a three-vehicle crash in Livinsgton County.

22-year-old Dustin Driskill was pronounced dead at the scene of the three-vehicle pile-up in Livingston County.

http://liarcatchers.com/accident_reconstruction.html

Investigators say Driskill was driving west on Highway 60 and veered into the opposite lane hitting another car head-on. Shortly after that, he hit yet another vehicle heading west.

Police say Driskill was not wearing a seat-belt.

Loved ones of a murdered Scott County woman are hoping and praying the power of social media will lead to an arrest in the case almost four years after she was killed.

In nearly three months, the fourth anniversary will be here in the murder of retired school bus driver Sue Jones was brutally beaten to death in her bed, as she slept. Now, her family is fighting for justice on Facebook. “I thought in less than a year it would have been solved,” said Jones’ great niece, Jessica Power. “It’s kind of heartbreaking.”

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

As another winter approaches, it’s another reminder of a case that seems to have gone cold another year. To re-charge the investigation, family members are taking their fight to Facebook with a newly created page, “Prayers and Justice for Sue Jones.” In just days, the “likes” have reached into the hundreds. “My goal was 500 by Wednesday and we’re almost there now,” said Power. “Next 1,000 to 2,000 to get as many as we can to know about this because somebody knows something they’re not telling.”

Jones was brutally attacked in her sleep, beaten over the head with some sort of object. Her injuries gruesome by anyone’s standards. Her loved ones, like Power, want people to see the life Jones lived before someone violently killed her inside her home. “Please tell her kids her grandkids her nieces all need to know who did this, they need justice for her,” said Power. “Peace of mind. Somebody needs to be in jail paying for what they’ve done.”

On the Facebook page, the family announced they’re having another memorial for Jones February 1, just days before the four year anniversary of the murder. They’re seeking donations to cover the cost to have it at the county park again.

The search continued Monday for a 24-year-old Madison man who was reported missing Saturday and has been the subject of an intensive two-day search in the Great Swamp area.

“Our investigation is ongoing,” said Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Zelante. The investigation is being headed by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.

Stephen Marano was last seen around 1:30 a.m. Saturday when he left the Green Village Fire Department’s headquarters, where he is a volunteer firefighter, on Green Village Road in the Green Village section of Chatham Township.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Marilyn Zara, of Madison, said Sunday that her nephew, Stephen Marano of South Street in Madison, drove from home around midnight Saturday morning to go to the firehouse, and was last seen when he left the department’s headquarters at about 1:30 a.m.

After Marano, the son of Mary Marano of South Street and one of four brothers, failed to return home, his mother called in a missing person report, Zara said. Marano’s father, Anthony Marano, passed away about six years ago.

Marano was remembered during Monday’s brief Veterans Day observances, held at the memorial stone across the street from the Green Village firehouse, which was on Sunday turned into a command post for search operations.

“Keep Stephen Marano and his family in your prayers,” said The Rev. Clarissa South Holland, pastor of the Green Village United Methodist Church.

Vehicle On Dirt Road

Zara disclosed that investigators subsequently found Marano’s vehicle on Britten Road, a dirt road off Green Village Road, with two of its wheels on the roadway and two in the brush.

The discovery was part of a search of the Great Swamp area that included dozens of law-enforcement officers, a K-9 dog-tracking unit and even helicopters.

Zara said that as a firefighter who has taken part in search-and-rescue operations in the Great Swamp, the family considered it unlikely that Marano would have headed on foot into the swamp “at 2 o’clock in the morning” and in cold weather. “He knew the danger,” she said.

Marano, who is employed as a waiter at the Madison Hotel in Morris Township, remained missing Sunday, and Zara said the continued search of the Great Swamp had to be called off at around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when darkness descended.

Zara indicated the family was mystified by Marano’s disappearance. “He had no enemies,” she observed.

Unless good news was received soon, Zara noted Sunday evening, it would be a second very difficult night for the family.

Two-Day Search

Police said Sunday afternoon they were continuing their efforts to find the 24-year-old Madison man. Morris County acting Prosecutor Frederick M. Knapp said Sunday only that Marano’s vehicle had been located near the Great Swamp in Chatham Township.

By late Sunday afternoon, with Marano still not found, dozens of members of various law enforcement and rescue agencies remained collected at the search’s command post, set up at the very place where Marano was last seen – the Green Village Fire Department in Chatham Township.

The investigation is being conducted by officers of the Chatham Township and Madison police departments, the New Jersey State Police, K-9 units from New Jersey Search and Rescue, the Morris County Park Police and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.

Zara said investigators from the county Prosecutor’s Office had been on the scene “from the start.”

Description

Marano is described as white, about 5-feet 9-inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He might have a close-cut hair cut or a shaved head.

He was last reported to be wearing dark pants and a dark sweatshirt, according to Knapp.

Knapp issued a public alert on the missing man at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, which was reinforced by Madison police with an alert at about 3:30 p.m.

Both Knapp and police asked anyone with information about Marano’s whereabouts to call the Morris County Communications Center at 973-285-2900.

Two years ago, a Lexington man was killed in a hit and run accident. No one was ever arrested for the crime. Now the family of Lance Newby is renewing their plea for answers as they mark this painful anniversary.

Jennifer Stigall, Lance’s mother, remembers the day like it was yesterday.

“I take off running and I round the corner and I see him in the street. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t breathe. He was gone,” she describes the day her son died in her arms.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

On his way to the bus stop, police say someone in a dark green SUV drove up on the curb of Winburn Drive, hitting Lance before driving off. No one was ever arrested for the crime that his family calls a case of mistaken identity.

“Somebody thought he was somebody else. But it wasn’t. It was my son,’ said Stigall.

Every year on the anniversary of his death, on his birthday, or just when his family’s feeling down they stop by his grave to pay their respects.

“I come here a lot of times and sit here and talk to him. Let him know I still miss him,” said Lance Newby Sr., his father.

As each year passes, the sense of loss remains. But the passion to bring his killer to justice grows.

“This family is not giving up. We are not giving up on this because they know what they did,” said Stigall.

The family asks that anyone with information, please call Lexington Police.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigators have charged a 29-year old man in the death of missing Cypress woman Wende Marshall.

Deputies are seeking a 68-year-old Spring man missing since Nov. 4.

There is more fallout from the single largest identity theft case in U.S. history.  Eleven people have now been indicted, accused of stealing 40 million credit card account numbers over the past two years.  The News On 6’s crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports that would be equal to stealing the identity of every single man, woman and child in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and New Mexico.

They sat outside businesses like Barnes and Noble, Sports Authority and Marshalls with a laptop and when they found one with a wireless network that wasn’t secured; they jumped on it and installed a program that grabbed people’s credit card information.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

When you swipe a credit or debit card, the device takes that card number and later transmits it to a bank or credit card company for payment.  Before it transmits, the number is stored on the business’ network.  And, those networks holding huge amounts of raw credit card information is where the attackers hit.

Companies were switching to the convenience of wireless networks and most weren’t secure.  The high-tech thieves knew that.

“If I’m a computer attacker or robber, do I go through the front door and hold a gun to your head and say give me all the credit card numbers? They’re probably not going to know what I’m talking about or do I break in at night and steal the computer with all the credit card numbers? No.  What I’m going to do is find an interesting way to hack in and get the credit card numbers,” said Gavin Manes with Digital Forensics Professionals.

The hackers did it by war driving.  That is driving around with a laptop looking for unsecured networks.

The News On 6 did a story in 2002 about Tulsans who were war-driving not for evil, but for good.  Whenever they found an unsecured network, they warned the owner to secure it.

But, these hackers, found unsecure business networks and installed sniffer programs, which collected account numbers and passwords.  Then, they sold much of that information online.

If someone buys your credit card account data online, they can put the information onto a blank card, then use that card to buy gas, groceries, cars, diamonds, you name it.

Even easier, they used the cloned cards to withdraw millions from different accounts at ATMs, money taken straight from your checking account.

A good offense is the best defense.  You should check your credit card and bank statements carefully and frequently.

“The attackers aren’t going to target the most secure people; they’re going to go after the low hanging fruit, what’s the easy target. Out of that 40 million credit card numbers they stole, there’s bound to be a million people who didn’t notice $10,000 missing from their account. That’s a pretty good profit right there,” said Gavin Manes with Digital Forensics Professionals.

If you notice a fraudulent purchase and report it within two days, you’ll most likely be protected and won’t have to pay it.  If you wait two months, you could be footing the bill for someone else’s spending.

Since this happened, stores that accept major credit cards are now required to secure their networks and use encryption programs to protect the data.