As a federal prosecutor on Wednesday shared with jurors grisly details of how authorities claim a former University of Illinois doctoral student kidnapped a visiting scholar from China, then beat her to death with a baseball bat, defense attorneys intent on sparing their client a possible death penalty offered an exceptional claim: He did it.
Read moreOpening statements are set for Wednesday in the death-penalty trial of a former University of Illinois graduate student charged with kidnapping, torturing and killing a visiting Chinese scholar, a case closely watched by Chinese students across the U.S.
Read moreThe case of a missing 4-year-old Texas girl came to a gruesome end Monday as officials said remains found near an interstate exit ramp nearly six hours from where she disappeared have been identified as hers.
Read moreDNA has provided evidence that the 21-year-old uncle of a missing 5-year-old girl in Utah is behind her disappearance, police said Tuesday. Evidence also indicates the girl, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Shelley, is hurt, authorities said, though they did not elaborate.
Read moreTexas adults believed to be kidnapped or missing have not been eligible for emergency broadcasts akin to Amber Alerts, but that soon will change.
Read moreA Wisconsin man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents in a case that mystified authorities for months until the girl made a daring escape from the remote cabin where she was held for 88 days.
Read moreDemanding $250,000 from his landlord, an Oregon man claims in court that Axford Lane LLC unlawfully entered his home and catnapped his feline, Frank, intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
Read moreA year and a half after her 19-year-old daughter was killed, a Texas mother scored a major victory in her fight to ensure no other parent suffers what she did: on Friday, the Texas House passed a bill that would establish an adult alert system, similar to Amber Alerts, that could deter kidnappings and facilitate recovery efforts in emergencies.
Read moreUnited States President Donald Trump on Monday urged Uganda to find the kidnappers of an American tourist who has been freed, amid conflicting reports over whether a ransom was paid for her release.
Read moreA 23-year-old ex-convict accused of pulling a cruel hoax by pretending to be a long-missing Illinois boy was charged Friday with making false statements to federal authorities.
Read moreA young man’s claim to be an Illinois boy who disappeared under tragic circumstances eight years ago was disproved by DNA tests and pronounced a hoax Thursday, dashing hopes that the baffling case had finally been solved.
Read moreA 14-year-old boy who said he escaped from two kidnappers in Ohio and fled across a bridge to Kentucky told authorities he is an Illinois boy who went missing nearly eight years ago.
Read moreA Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs, killing her parents and holding her captive in a remote cabin for three months, in a move that spares the girl and her family from the possible trauma of having to testify at his trial.
Read moreA bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 children and their chaperones Wednesday, ordering the children’s hands to be bound and threatening them with death during the drive, before setting the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a Carabinieri blockade.
Read moreA Southern California man will spend 18 months in prison for laundering the ransom money collected by a violent kidnapping organization that held two dozen Mexican nationals hostage under the guise of smuggling them into the United States.
Read moreItaly’s interior minister has written a letter to leading daily Corriere della Sera saying the country’s Senate should not approve a judicial request to try him for not allowing 177 migrants off an Italian coast guard ship last August.
Read moreThe 11th Circuit on Friday begrudgingly granted a former Georgia district attorney qualified immunity from claims that he defamed a wrongfully convicted prisoner in retaliation for seeking compensation after his exoneration.
Read moreThe lawyer for one of Norway’s richest men whose missing wife was allegedly abducted says they have received a message believed to come from those “in control of” her.
Read moreA woman who was kidnapped and shot in April last year by three gang members filed a lawsuit against the city of San Diego in state court Tuesday, claiming that police dispatchers persuaded her mother to treat the woman’s ransom calls as a “hoax” and led to her gunshot injuries by the three, causing her to become a quadriplegic.
Read moreFor nearly three months, 13-year-old Jayme Closs was forced to hide in a 2½-foot space beneath her kidnapper’s bed, going without food, water or a bathroom for hours, too terrified to flee from a man she knew had fatally shot both of her parents.
Read more