“It was hard, it was tough. Being in jail for something you didn’t do,” Bryant D. Davis explains. Davis would have never imagined something like this happening to him-especially NOT in front of his own house in Little Rock.

Davis continues, “He asked me, did you have any warrants? I was like no. He ran it and was like man, I thought you didn’t have any warrants and I said I don’t. He said it shows that shows that you have a warrant out of Bastrop, Louisiana.”

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

Falsely accused, arrested and extradited to Morehouse Parish Jail in Bastrop, Louisiana, Davis spent a total of seven weeks behind bars, charged with bank fraud and attempt to commit bank fraud. He says, “I told him that day, that moment, I’m a victim of identity theft.”

In surveillance video from September of 2012 in Bastrop Super Food, you can see a black male cashing a fraudulent check. This man used Davis’ license, but that man is not Bryant Davis. Davis explains, “No one would help me in the situation, no one would talk to me or anything like that. They wouldn’t even point me in the direction to go in.”

Feeling like he had nowhere to turn, Davis reached out to his father to see what he could do. His dad, Bryant K. Davis says, “My main goal was to get him back here with us. We weren’t stopping until we got him here.”

Getting no cooperation from officials in Bastrop is what led Davis’ dad to enlist help from a special investigator at the Arkansas Attorney General’s office. He explains, “Got them to actually look at the video. And after they looked at the video, there was no question that they had the wrong person.”

After spending nearly two months behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Davis and his family are thankful for the people who helped him prove his innocence. Now, he is on a mission to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. He says, “There’s got to be a way, something that can be done to stop it.”

A man suspected of opening fire at a major U.S. airport is in custody, police in Los Angeles are reporting.

Authorities say 23-year-old Paul Ciancia entered Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport Friday morning wearing camouflage battle dress uniform and opened fire.

CBS is reporting that a law enforcement source said the shooter was an off-duty TSA agent, and that he was targeting TSA employees. A spokesman with the American Federation of Government Employees confirmed that a TSA officer was killed in the shooting at LAX.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

The source also says there was a hand-written note in a bag that said the gunman “wanted to kill TSA and pigs.”

The AP says that two people were also wounded.

“We are sickened by reports of today’s shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport,” TSA Union Leader J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement, reported by CBS Los Angeles. “Our sincerest thoughts and prayers go out to the passengers and Transportation Security Officers killed or injured in this heinous act. Thank you to all of our brave TSOs who put their lives on the line every day to keep the flying public safe. AFGE is monitoring the situation along with TSA management.”

CBS Los Angeles says that a large box of ammunition was recovered at the scene. LAPD Bomb Squad responded.

Passengers reported being evacuated from the terminal sometime after 9 a.m.

Passenger Robert Perez told the station that TSA agents came through the terminal and yelled that a man had a gun.

“I heard popping and everybody dropped to the ground,” Perez said.

Aerial shots obtained by the station reportedly showed buses were transporting passengers that had disembarked from planes onto the runway area.

There was an FAA ground stop in place for flights bound for LAX. We are working to find out if that is still in effect.

A Cookeville woman was recently charged with several different offenses after allegedly using another person’s identity to work for a local company.

Graciela M. Felipe, of Sunflower Lane, was charged with identity theft (class D felony), criminal simulation (class E felony) and two counts of forgery, according to arrest warrants.

The warrants state Felipe “did apply for employment” at an employee staffing agency under the name of another woman during August of this year.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

The Social Security number and date of birth Felipe also allegedly provided to the agency belonged to this other woman, warrants state.

Previously, the “subject had applied and worked for (the staffing agency) before under this name from Aug. 27, 2012, until June 2013,” states the warrants.

Felipe “did have in her possession and did use the fraudulent Social Security card, the fraudulent Tennessee ID card and two fraudulent Identification Consular Cards,” states a warrant.

She was taken into custody on Wednesday to the Putnam County Jail.

Her total bonds were set at $25,000.

She has a Dec. 16 court date.

Attorney General Jack Conway today announced the indictment of a husband and wife facing charges involving welfare fraud.

A Franklin County grand jury indicted 45-year-old Ala Samaan and 41-year-old Taghreed Samaan, of Nicholasville, with one count of scheming to defraud an assistance program, for obtaining more than $10,000 in Kentucky Medicaid benefits by fraud.

Ala Samaan is an officer in eight different corporations in Kentucky, including those that do business as Clucker’s, a convenience store and gas station in Wilmore, and J.D. Legends, an entertainment complex with locations in Nicholasville and Franklin, Ohio. The indictment stems from investigations conducted by the OAG Department of Criminal Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by General Conway’s Office of Special Prosecutions.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

Scheming to defraud an assistance program is a Class C felony, carrying a penalty of five to 10 years in prison. If convicted, the two could also face a fine of up to $60,000, in addition to having to repay the Kentucky Medicaid program.

Police in Warren County are searching for a missing 20-year-old woman whose car was found in Lexington.

Rachel Walters was last seen around 11 a.m. Thursday heading Bowling Green. She was driving a 2004 white Subaru ,which was found at Blue Grass Airport.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Walters was wearing a dark colored business jacket over an open neck blouse, dark colored dress pants and snake skin colored knee high boots. She has a silver chain around her neck with a dragon charm.

There have been multiple reports of a shooting at LAX airport in Los Angeles.

CBS Los Angeles reports that LAPD confirmed there’s been a “major” incident at the airport, but further details aren’t yet available. Terminal 3 has been evacuated.

ABC 7 reports that a TSA agent has been shot at a checkpoint.

A “stampede of people” reportedly started running onto the tarmac after the gunfire broke out, according to Fox Sports’ Bill Reiter, who is on the scene.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

CBS LA is reporting that a gunman with a high-powered rifle was shot and “secured by law enforcement personnel.” The Los Angeles Times is also reporting that a suspect has been shot and wounded.

Arrival and departure roads to the airport have been closed, according to CBS LA.

KSP initiated ‘Operation Black Friday utilizing every available sworn unit within the agency to arrest 479 individuals in what is the largest one-day drug round-up in agency history. All KSP Posts, the KSP Drug Enforcement Special Investigations (DESI) Branch, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, along with assistance from local law enforcement, ATF, DEA and U.S. Marshalls Service began arresting individuals before daybreak.

KSP reports that 479 targets were arrested resulting in 774 charges. KSP Commissioner Rodney Brewer said the operation is a direct result of law abiding citizens providing tips via phone calls, messages, letters and information to the anonymous tip lines. He referenced to an anonymous letter, a plea for help, from a mother whose son became a drug addict. She provided pertinent information that led to the arrest of the drug dealer selling to her son.

http://liarcatchers.com/drugdogsweeps.html

“Today, I can say to all of you who have made this same plea – we hear you. We have not forgotten about you and more importantly, we are locating these individuals and making these much needed arrests,” says Brewer.

Brewer indicated that many of the arrests are what KSP terms as “low-level” offenders. These are usually people who buying drugs and generally cause disruption within the communities where they live.

“Citizens are tired of perpetual offenders who are disrupting neighborhoods and participating in other criminal mischief,” adds Brewer. While many of the arrests today are low level targets, it is very probably that we will obtain information from them that will lead to arrests of more significant dealers and drug operations.”

Brewer stated that most of the charges during ‘Operation Black Friday’ were drug-related including prescription drugs, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine.

“While legislation regarding pharmaceuticals (prescription drugs) has had a positive impact in Kentucky, Heroin is now an increasing problem across the state,” says Brewer. “Our arrest data (from DESI Branch) is showing a 200 percent increase in heroin-related arrests since 2012.”

Brewer encouraged citizens to be vigilant in reporting drug activity and suspicious behavior in their local communities.

“We provide multiple avenues for people to anonymously report information, including a toll free tip-line 1-(800) DOPE TIP and the ‘Text-A-Tip’* program,” says Brewer. “We have received 842 tips through the tip-line and 302 tips from the ‘Text-A-Tip’ program. This is a great example of successful community policing, where law enforcement partners with local citizens to remove criminals from their communities.”

A body found in rural northeast Kansas has been identified as that of an Olathe man missing since Oct. 20.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday there is no evidence of criminal activity in the unattended death of Brad Cook, 22. A pedestrian found Cook’s body Tuesday in rural De Soto.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

The discovery was made about two miles from where another unattended death was reported this week. In that case, a person was found dead in a carport outside a De Soto apartment complex.

Investigators haven’t revealed the cause of either death, and they don’t believe the two cases are connected.

Fifteen year-old Abigail Hernandez is the latest person from the region to be added to the FBI’s website for missing children.

After more than 800 tips, FBI Special Agent Kieran Ramsay says, they’re right where they were the afternoon Abigail vanished. “Everybody has a public life, a private life and a secret life, and in investigations like these we seek to uncover each of those. So we know a lot about her public life, a lot about her private life and we know about her secret life. Sadly, everything we know about her has not given us where she is today,” Ramsay said.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

“It’s certainly frustrating,” said Vermont State Police Major Glenn Hall. Hall knows how tough it can be — he investigated Brianna Maitland’s disappearance in Montgomery — and nine years later, he still hopes they get answers. “That’s a case that is active and we still receive leads on and we have detectives actively working following up on those leads,” Hall said. He says those leads have come in every year since she went missing, including this year.

Major Hall says Maitland is one of 38 missing Vermonters. Donald Messier of Waterbury and his red Ford F-150 pickup haven’t been seen for seven years. A private investigator working the case is distributing cards with information in hopes a hunter in the Waitsfield area may spot something.

Gracie Reapp from Jericho disappeared on June 7, 1978 with her mother Grace. In the 35 years since they disappeared, there have been many twists and turns for investigators. Three years ago, they were back here in Jericho searching the land for their bodies. “Short of us getting new information that would lead us to want to search another area and do additional searches, we’re not at that point yet in this case,” Hall said.

Ed Miller teaches criminal investigation at Champlain College. He spent more than 20 years with Vermont State Police. “The Reapp case — I did some work on that back when I was in the intelligence unit. Ross Bovit — I can remember that.  That was a Northeast Kingdom case — that gentleman is still missing,” Miller said.

Miller says new technology like ‘bings’ from a cell phone can help track a person. He also says reminding the public can help jog a memory and maybe finally bring home Abigail, Brianna and Donald. “It’s sad for the families. They’re the ones that suffer. They have no closure. They don’t know what happened to their loved one,” Miller said.

“We don’t ever close a case completely,” Major Hall said.

But as we’re seeing in the Abigail Hernandez case, investigators hold on to hope, but it gets harder and harder when signs point to trouble. “Here you have a 14- year-old girl with a robust presence on social media — texting, use of her phone, contact with friends and family — and it went totally dark.

You can’t go into Northern New Hampshire without spotting flyers of Abigail. There’s a $20,000 reward and FBI officials expect that to go up.

Creek County authorities are seeking information about a 32-year-old man who was last seen three weeks ago.