Law enforcement said the girl had been abducted from Dallas, Texas.

Law enforcement rescued a missing 13-year-old girl from a locked shed in Lexington, North Carolina, after federal authorities provided a tip about the missing minor.

Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said his office received a tip from an FBI Violent Crimes Task Force about a minor who had been abducted from Dallas. Officials were able to locate the missing girl in an externally-locked shed behind a home in Lexington, North Carolina.

Simmons said that Jorge Camacho, 34, used a social media messenger to lure her from her home to his car.

“The content of the chat was consistent with grooming and enticement, and he enticed her to actually leave the home where he picked her up in the area,” Simmons said.

The timeline of the abduction is still unclear, as the investigation is ongoing; however, authorities said that they were able to use “camera activity” to determine the vehicle associated with the abduction and the suspect’s identity within 10 minutes of getting the tip.

Authorities searched Camacho’s home, finding the abducted girl in a shed on the property’s exterior.

According to Davidson, North Carolina, records, Camacho was booked at Davidson County Jail on Saturday. He has been charged with multiple offenses, including rape, child abduction, and human trafficking. He is being held on a $1.2 million bond.

“I thank god that we were able to find this young girl; it may not be that case forever,” Simmons said, noting that his office had investigated a concerning number of similar cases.

More than 2,100 people were referred to federal authorities for human trafficking offenses in 2020, according to data from the Department of Justice, a 62% increase in referrals since 2011.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 365,348 children were missing in 2020, with estimates suggesting that 30% were actively trafficked.

Simmons said parents should be mindful of their children’s social media activity, given their potential susceptibility to bad actors.

“We’ve had to do this so many times, it’s crazy,” he said. “That’s why we’re pleading with these parents.”

Police have taken a 58-year-old Copley man into custody in connection with the deaths of three men found Friday bound, gagged and dumped along two roads.

Officials have yet to identify all of the victims, but a joint statement released Saturday said investigators believed they had been kidnapped from “outside this area and brought to Summit County.”

Investigators apparently zeroed in on Elias Gudino within hours of the bodies being discovered, obtaining a search warrant for his Henetta Avenue home Friday night. Gudino − who was sentenced to 150 months in prison in 2010 after federal officials broke up a national drug ring they said Gudino led from Akron − has been charged with one count of aggravated murder and one of attempted aggravated murder, according to the statement.

It’s unclear what led police to Gudino or what they found in his home that may link him to the bodies.

A passerby called Akron police Friday about 8:30 a.m. when he saw two of the men’s bodies dumped on Cordova Avenue in a narrow wooded area that runs between the city street and a sound barrier blocking Interstate 77 North.

About 20 minutes later, Copley police received a similar call about a body dumped off Wright Road, less than 2 miles away from the Cordova Avenue dump site. Besides being bound and gagged, all of the men had been shot in the head.

Akron and Copley police are working jointly to investigate the case and said Saturday they believe others could face charges.

Public records show that Gudino at one time owned La Michoacana Taqueria and grocery in the 1400 block of Copley Road in West Akron.

Court records show he was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in the 1980s and became an American citizen.

In 2009, when Gudino lived in Akron, federal agents had been investigating what they referred to as the “Elias Gudino Drug Trafficking Organization,” court records said.

Investigators said they had information that Gudino had been trafficking drugs since the 1990s and now had an operation that was based in southern Mexico, but reached across the U.S. in Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma and other states, court records said.

Much of the investigation, however, focused on Akron, where officials said he was supplying local cocaine dealers and operating his business. When investigators tapped Gudino’s phone, they heard him talking to people in Mexico and other states about what he was moving through the trafficking organization, court records said.

Investigators moved in when Gudino and another man were bringing a shipment of cocaine into Akron, court records said. When they stopped a vehicle Gudino and the man were in, they found about 8 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a compartment near the radiator, records show.

A few months later, Gudino pleaded guilty to two federal charges involving drug trafficking and was sentenced to 12½ years in prison, followed by five years’ probation.

Federal prison records show Gudino was released from prison in November 2017, but court records show he remained on probation at least through May 2022.

Original Article

Five people were found dead at a Miami Lakes, Florida, home in what police believe to be a murder-suicide.

“This is extremely tragic to be able to find five individuals that are in there lifeless because of the fact that this may be a murder-suicide,” Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta shared while speaking to reporters outside the home on Friday.

During the briefing shared by NBC 6 South Florida, Zabaleta reported that police arrived at the scene around 10 a.m. that morning to do a wellness check after receiving a call from one of the victim’s family members.

After entering the home through a window, Zabaleta shares that it is when police discovered that there was a person “deceased and suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.”

“As they continued to clear the house to look for any possible suspects, or of course, more danger, that’s when they continued to search the different rooms and found additional bodies in those rooms. Again, also deceased from apparent gunshot wounds,” he added.

NBC 6 South Florida reports that the victims include two men and three women and that police say that one of the men killed the four victims and then fatally shot himself.

While police have not released any of the victim’s identities, a man named Rolando Aguilar told WPLG Local 10 on Friday that the victims include his 34-year-old son Dhani Aguilar and his 54-year-old ex-wife Joanka Aguila.

The Miami-Dade Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

According to WSVN, officials do not believe there is a threat to public safety in the area. The case remains under investigation.

Original Article

A beloved Minnesota judge championed for pioneering a local mental health court died after being struck by a vehicle while running in Florida on vacation, according to reports. 

Judge Sally L. Tarnowski, assigned to the Sixth Judicial District Court in St. Louis County, died Monday while on vacation in Florida, the Minnesota Judicial Branch confirmed in a statement. 

“All of us within the Minnesota courts community are devastated by the loss of Judge Tarnowski,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea said in a statement. “Beyond her exemplary service to Minnesota, Judge Tarnowski was a vibrant person whose commitment to justice shined through in everything she did.”

Among her many accomplishments, Tarnowski championed mental health treatment court, which offers offenders a pathway out of the justice system by completing a treatment program to stop the behavior that led them to court, according to the state judicial branch. She also supported early neutral evaluation in family court, which facilitates prompt dispute resolution for custody, parenting time, and financial matters.

Local reports say neither the Minnesota Judicial Branch nor Florida authorities could immediately confirm the cause of death. 

A moment of silence was held in Tarnowski’s honor before the St. Louis County Board’s scheduled meeting on Tuesday.

Appointed by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Tarnowski had served as a judge in St. Louis County since 2007.  She was chief judge of the Sixth Judicial District from 2016-2020. Her term was not to expire until 2027. Tarnowski graduated from Mitchell Hamline School of Law in 1986. 

“Judge Tarnowski died suddenly this week while vacationing in Florida,” the school said in a statement on Facebook. “She was the epitome of the public service that we aim to instill in our students, having served as a judge since 2007 and as chief judge for the judicial district for four years.”

Chief Public Defender Dan Lew, who worked with Tarnowski to establish the Community Integration Court, remembered his late colleague for “her tremendous courage for those who are the most hurt: those in mental health crisis, unsheltered, and unloved by too many.” 

“Soon after Sally piloted the state’s first mental health court, and we can now see those beautiful faces in our community who are now job coaches, substance use counselors, managers, small business owners, fathers and mothers — all living better lives,” Lew told the Duluth News Tribune. 

Tarnowski also was said to have presided over the Indian Child Welfare Court at the Duluth courthouse. 

“Her legacy here at the courthouse is just huge,” St. Louis County Attorney Kim Maki told the Duluth News Tribune. “She was involved in so many things, and she was such a caring person to the people that the courts and our office deal with. It will be impossible to fill her shoes.”

“One of the things that people note most about her is her ability to reach people where they’re at, and to listen to them when they have something to say,” Maki added. “She would listen to the family trauma that they experienced and special circumstances that applied to different families. I know that she was very, very well respected by a lot of the families who went through her court.”

In Tarnowski’s honor, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa issued a statement remembering her “contributions to establishing the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Courtroom in St. Louis County, which was emulated in courtrooms across the area, will always be a tremendous accomplishment.”

“Her continued support for the equality of Native American families was unheralded and a massive loss for the 6th Judicial District,” the statement added. 

“As a passionate defense attorney, I often disagreed with her rulings in my cases,” public defender Veronica Surges told the newspaper. “At the same time, I deeply respected her because I could tell how much she cared about the people in my courtroom — especially my most mentally ill clients. Underneath her tough exterior she was one of the nicest, most compassionate, and most patient people I have ever met.” Surges said one of her clients whom Tarnowski sentenced to prison even called crying upon learning of the judge’s passing. 

Buster Murdaugh filed a report with the sheriff’s office on March 5, two days after watching a Colleton County jury convict his father Alex Murdaugh of murdering the 26-year-old surviving son’s brother and mother, Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.

Alex Murdaugh, disgraced, disbarred, and facing scores of other charges for the financial swindles he copped to committing while on the witness stand, was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences last Friday. Thereafter, the defendant was booked — the remnants of his red hair shorn.

Two days later, Buster, identified in the police report by his full given name — Richard Alexander Murdaugh, mirroring his dad’s name and that of their ancestors — filed the report with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office regarding a “disturbance” after the New York Post published a photo of him peeking through blinds at the Hilton Head Island residence.

The Murdaugh son “stated he was made aware of a photo published in the New York Post that appeared today,” the sheriff’s investigation narrative began.

“Buster said he and his girlfriend reviewed Ring camera footage from the residence and observers a suspicious grey Dodge Challenger outside the residence at approximately 1839 hours yesterday,” the report said, describing what allegedly took place on Saturday night. “Buster believes the occupant of this vehicle took the photo, judging on Buster’s position in the residence when the photo was captured.”

Authorities said they responded to the complaint by upping patrols outside the residence, advising Buster on “Trespass” and “Restraining order procedures,” and providing him with the necessary contact information to take further legal action if warranted.

The sheriff’s office identified Buster Murdaugh as the complainant, but noted his girlfriend Brooklynn White also called the sheriff’s office to “advise she and her boyfriend, Buster, were being followed by ‘the media’ in a grey Chevrolet SUV.”

Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, and Brooklynn White look on as Alex Murdaugh testifies in Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C.  (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)

Authorities said that a corporal tailed the SUV and stopped the driver for speeding and making an improper lane change. That driver was identified as Nathanael Ryan Jones.

Jones appeared to have a “camera bag” in the front passenger seat, investigators said. The individual was only given a traffic violation warning.

Hilton Head Island is around a 100-mile drive away from historic Charleston, which is located roughly an hour-and-a-half east of Colleton County. Hilton Head is contained within Beaufort County and is near both the South Carolina-Georgia border and historic Savannah.

You can read the sheriff’s office’s report on the incident in full here.

Original Article