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A missing person case came to a happy ending Saturday when a man was found safe in Kenton County.
49-year-old Larry Mardis was found after he walked away from his rest home on Thursday. Police found Mardis when he walked into an emergency room.
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Police say Mardis was in good condition when he was found.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office is asking for your help in identifying two men involved in credit card fraud.
Suspects were seen using a stolen credit card at an ATM on Saturday.
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The Sheriff’s Office says the two men have been associated with a string of thefts from cars in the Frederick County area.
The two suspects are described as white males, 5’6” to 5’8”.
One was wearing a camouflage hat, and black t-shirt underneath a collared shirt.
If you have any helpful information in this case please contact Crime Solvers at 540-665-TIPS.
Ten people have been charged in Alexandria for their alleged involvement in a large-scale identity theft ring operating in the Washington metropolitan area since at least January 2012. The seven individuals arrested were:
Jamille Ferguson, 31, of New York, New York, and Virginia;
Elizabeth Monika Hunter, 19, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Tekia Thomas, 20, of Alexandria, Virginia;
Janero Blalock, 31, of Fort Washington, Maryland;
Christopher Bush, 39, of District Heights, Maryland;
Adrienne Pritchett, 42, of District Heights, Maryland; and
Segale Battle, 30, of Washington, D.C.
Two additional defendants were already in state custody when federal charges were filed: Jennifer Scruggs, 44, of Hyattsville, Maryland; and Rungnatee Pearson, 45. An arrest warrant was issued for the remaining defendant, Kevin Middleton, 32, of Charleston, South Carolina.
According to the 16-count indictment and a related criminal complaint, Blalock and Bush allegedly recruited women to steal personal information, such as social security numbers, addresses, and dates of birth, from their employers, which included a local dental practice, insurer, and rental car company.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
To date, over 600 potential victims have been identified, including many overseas employees of the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Members of the ring are alleged to have used the stolen identity information to manufacture fraudulent identification documents bearing their photographs and victims’ personal information, and would then use those fraudulent identification documents and victims’ social security numbers to open credit lines under victims’ names.
Through this scheme, members of the ring were allegedly able to obtain merchandise from various retailers, including Macy’s, Jared the Galleria of Jewelry, and Kay Jewelers. To date, law enforcement has recovered 284 suspected fraudulent identification documents bearing victim information and ring members’ photographs.
The indictment charges the following offenses: Conspiracy to commit bank fraud, access device fraud, and identity theft, which is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of five years; bank fraud, which is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of thirty years; access device fraud, which is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years; identity theft, which is punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of fifteen years; and aggravated identity theft, which is punishable by a mandatory term of imprisonment of two years in addition to any other sentence.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kathy A. Michalko, Special Agent in Charge for the United States Secret Service’s Washington Field Office; and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after a number of the defendants made their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson in Alexandria, Va.
The investigation was conducted by the United States Secret Service and the Fairfax County Police Department, with assistance from the City of Fairfax Police Department, Prince George’s County W.A.V.E. (Washington Area Vehicle Enforcement), Prince George’s County Financial Crimes Section, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, Delaware State Police, Maryland State Police, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of State.
Assistant United States Attorney Lindsay A. Kelly and Special Assistant United States Attorney Peter V. Roman are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
Police in Utah have arrested a 33-year-old West Valley City man who they think raided Draper residents’ mailboxes to get personal identification information.
Draper police tell the Deseret News (http://bit.ly/1cnhr6d ) they’re working with agencies including the U.S. Postal Service following the arrest Thursday of Kevin Russell Humphreys on theft and mail fraud charges.
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Arrest documents say police found a credit card, Social Security card and checkbook belonging to different people in Humphrey’s apartment, along with a small amount of methamphetamine.
Records show that Humphreys has been charged several times in recent months with identity fraud, forgery and unlawful possession of identification documents of another person.
Officials advised residents to retrieve mail quickly after it is delivered and to take outgoing mail to the post office.
Police have issued an Amber Alert for a 2-year-old boy after two people were found dead in an apparent double homicide in Rhode Island.
State police say toddler Isaiah Perez was discovered missing from a Johnston home at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Police say the Amber Alert is part of a double-homicide investigation but didn’t elaborate.
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Authorities are searching for 22-year-old Malcolm Crowell, who they say snatched Isaiah from the home.
Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous.
No description of his vehicle was immediately available.
California murder and kidnapping suspect James DiMaggio has been killed and teen Hannah Anderson is safe, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore said at a press conference.
DiMaggio was shot and killed by an FBI tactical agent assigned to an FBI headquarters unit at the north end of Morehead Lake in Idaho around 4:20 p.m. PT. Hannah was with DiMaggio and was rescued safely.
“It truly was a joint effort and I am pleased to stand here today and say that Hannah was successfully rescued and appears to be in pretty good shape,” Gore says.
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Hannah’s father was notified. “Obviously he’s elated that we found his daughter is alive and plans are being made now to reunite him with his daughter hopefully tomorrow morning,” Gore says.
Hannah will be taken to a hospital where she will be thoroughly evaluated before any detectives or FBI agents interview her. Her father will be transported to Idaho and hopefully reunited with his daughter tomorrow, he said.
FBI victim specialists are now working with Hannah and her family to get them the resources they need as they come to terms with the tragedy, FBI Special Agent Mary Rook says. “As grateful as we are that she is recovered safely, we also remember the victims who lost their lives.”
The campsite was spotted from the air and then the ground units were sent into the area which lead to the confrontation, shooting and killing of DiMaggio.
“Obviously we would’ve liked Mr. DiMaggio to surrender and face justice in the court of law but that’s not going to be the case,” Gore says.
The intense manhunt and multi-state Amber Alert case has been going on since Sunday.
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department says it appears that DiMaggio, 40, kidnapped Hannah after killing her mother, Christina Anderson, and her brother, Ethan, last weekend. Their bodies were found in DiMaggio’s burning California home near the Mexican border, Sunday. On Friday night, San Diego County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that the remains found in the home matched the DNA of Ethan, 8.
Ethan Anderson’s remains were not positively identified until Friday night and an Amber Alert was initially issued for both children.
DiMaggio’s Nissan Versa, covered with brush and missing its California license plates, was found about five miles from a trailhead into the area Friday morning. Authorities had suspected the car may have been booby-trapped, but no explosives were found in or around the vehicle by a Boise Police Department bomb squad. DiMaggio is considered armed and dangerous, authorities say.
The discovery of his car came two days after a man on horseback reported seeing DiMaggio and 16-year-old Hannah in hiking gear and backpacks. Idaho authorities say the rider didn’t realize the pair were being sought until he got home and recognized them on news reports.
Some 200 law enforcement officials – mostly FBI agents – had descended on a 320-square-mile area of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, a mostly roadless, rugged, heavily wooded forest in central Idaho about 70 miles northeast of Boise.
Teams from the Valley County and Ada County Sheriff’s departments, U.S Marshals Service, Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Idaho Army National Guard and Idaho State Police were part of the search-and-rescue operations, says Andrea Dearden, an Ada County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.
Authorities say DiMaggio was “infatuated” with Hannah.
Brett Anderson said earlier this week that DiMaggio had promised to watch over his family and that his kids had referred to him as “Uncle Jim.”
Police in Lexington are still on the lookout for a man they say, shot a woman several times in front of dozens of witnesses.
It happened around 8:15 Friday night at the Swahili Elks Lodge on Versailles Road, between Red Mile and Angelina Avenue.
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Police say 50-year-old Wendell Dixon showed up and started arguing with an ex-girlfriend. The victim tried to run but that’s when police say Dixon started shooting.
Witnesses told police the gunman stood over her and shot several times at point-blank range.
The gunman then took off in his car.
The car was found but the search for Wendell Dixon is still on.
If you know anything about Dixon’s whereabouts, call Lexington Police.
Police are seeking information that could lead to the whereabouts of missing 31-year-old mother of two, Andrea Crew, reported missing on Thursday, Aug. 8.
Crew, of the 8000 block of Gila Court, was last seen getting out of a beige Jeep Cherokee near a bank in the 5500 block of Cherokee Avenue, in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County around 11 a.m.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
She has not contacted her family nor returned home.
Authorities are concerned for her safety based on information gathered in their investigation.
Anyone with information should contact Detective Chris Flanagan of the Fairfax County Police Department at (703) 246-7860.
Authorities found a woman’s body on Friday near a Northern California park where they had been searching for a missing federal investigator.
Oakland police Officer Johnna Watson said the body has not been identified and will be taken to the Solano County coroner.
It was found by Contra Costa County sheriff’s search and rescue teams in a woodsy area near Laguna Valley Park in Vacaville, as crews searched for 50-year-old Sandra Coke of Oakland.
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The search for Coke was ended after the discovery, and authorities remained tight-lipped about what led dozens of local, state and federal investigators to the area.
Coke, a capital case investigator for the federal public defender’s office in Sacramento, was last seen in Oakland on Sunday.
On Thursday, Oakland police identified Coke’s former boyfriend, Randy Alana, as a person of interest in the case. He and Coke were seen together Sunday, police said.
Alana, 56, of Oakland, a registered sex offender, was arrested on an unspecified parole violation on Tuesday.
“We are looking at an angle to see if foul play was involved,” Watson said.
Coke left her Oakland home shortly after 8:30 p.m. Sunday after reportedly telling her 15-year-old daughter she was meeting with someone who had found her missing dog.
Coke said she would be back in 30 minutes. Her daughter called police when her mother did not come home that night.
A family friend, Laura Burstein, said Coke dated Alana more than 20 years ago. Another friend, Dan Abrahamson, told KGO-TV, that Alana recently reappeared in the area and reached out to Coke for help.
Alana was being held without bail. He is considered a high-risk sex offender, with state records showing he has convictions for rape and kidnapping.
Dozens of Coke’s family and friends announced a $100,000 reward on Thursday for any information leading to her return.
“These last few days have been a living nightmare,” said her sister, Tanya Coke, who believes foul play may be involved.
Calls to Tanya Coke on Friday were not immediately returned. Earlier, Sandra Coke’s family released a statement hoping for her return.
“We are enormously grateful for the efforts of everyone — law enforcement, colleagues and friends of Sandra, and members of the public and the media — who have labored day and night to find Sandra,” the statement read.
Police found Coke’s 2007 Mini Cooper convertible on Monday, just a few blocks from her home and her cellphones were discovered near Interstate 80 in Richmond and near the Oakland-Emeryville border .
As an investigator, Coke was assigned to probe capital cases that are appealed to federal court to ensure death sentences are fair.
A Whitehall woman who used stolen identities to file false unemployment claims in eight states was sentenced yesterday to four years in federal prison.
Audrey Costar, 46, of 819 Westphal Ave., also was ordered by U.S. District Judge James L. Graham to repay more than $78,000 in undeserved unemployment benefits that she received during a three-year period. She pleaded guilty in April to two counts of theft of government funds and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
Investigators said Costar used 50 stolen identities to obtain benefits from Ohio, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Utah between 2009 and 2012.
When one state cut her off, she would move to another and start again, investigators said.
Costar’s attorney, George M. Wolfe, said his client’s actions were fallout from long-term mental-health issues that worsened after a violent random assault in California in 2006. She is still being treated for complications from severe injuries she suffered in that attack and takes eight medications a day that include anti-psychotics and anxiety drugs, he said.
Unable to work, Costar became dependent on a scheme that the people who gave her the stolen identities swore was legitimate, Wolfe said. She kicked some of the money back to them, he said.
Costar’s criminal record predates the 2006 assault by more than 10 years.
“She does have a very long history of serious offenses, most of which involve fraud,” Graham said. “The court finds it very hard to believe that she engaged in this activity believing it was legitimate.”