SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Police in Springfield say the suspects in the city’s ninth homicide of the year have been arrested about 40 miles away.
The Springfield News-Leader reports a 39-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman were booked Wednesday into the Greene County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder.
The two are suspected in the Monday night’s fatal shooting of 21-year-old Charles Cortez. Police spokeswoman Lisa Cox said investigators believe Cortez was dumped in a street after being shot several times inside a vehicle.
A tip led to a search for the suspects in Lebanon, where police spotted their car early Tuesday at a McDonald’s restaurant. The two ran after crashing their car following a chase.
The male suspect was apprehended Tuesday afternoon on a Lebanon street. The woman was captured early Wednesday.
Sheriff Mike StrongThe Missouri Supreme Court says legal restrictions on sex offenders apply to all sex offenders, not just new ones. Local law enforcement will return to a policy of zero tolerance.
Buchanan County Sheriff Mike Strong says his office will be on the lookout October 31st for violations of the Halloween restriction. Offenders must avoid all Halloween-related contact with children, and remain inside their homes between 5pm and 10:30pm on Halloween night, unless there is just cause to leave.
Offenders must also post a sign on their residence stating “NO CANDY OR TREATS AT THIS RESIDENCE,” and leave all residential lighting off during the evening hours.
The Missouri Supreme Court recently ruled that the restrictions on sex offenders do not violate the state constitution’s prohibition against retrospective laws, which apply only to civil laws. Strong says that in recent years, his deputies have not been allowed to enforce the Halloween restrictions against some long-time offenders.
“We’ve been restricted on who we could enforce it on,” Strong says in an interview. “There was a date that we should go back to and anyone convicted before that, and required to register, we could not enforce it on them, because that law was not effective then.”
“This makes it retroactive, where we can go back and enforce the regulations on all registered sex offenders.”
Strong says Buchanan County currently has 272 registered offenders.
“We’re going to have several people specifically on this,” Strong says. “We’ve always maintained zero-tolerance for this program.”
“We’re going to commit our resources, and several of us will be out enforcing that. We’ll be making sure they have the right sign posted, that their lights are out, and you know, they’re not giving candy.”
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — A judge has found enough evidence to try a man in the deaths of a woman and her three children last November in southeast Kansas.
KOAM reports that 23-year-old David Bennett Jr. was bound over for trial Wednesday. He is charged with threatening, raping and killing 29-year-old Cami Umbarger, along with killing the children.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents and forensic specialists testified at the preliminary hearing that the body of Umbarger and her 9-year-old daughter were found under different beds in the same bedroom of their Parsons home. The body of Umbarger’s 6-year-old son was found beneath clothes in a utility room. Her 4-year-old daughter’s body was stuffed into a clothes dryer, buried under clothes.
Bennett was arrested in Independence after a massive manhunt.
Habitat ReStore truck courtesy Habitat for Humanity St. Joseph
St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity is partnering with Bob Evans Restaurant to collect donations.
The Habitat ReStore box truck will be located at Bob Evans Restaurant located in the Shoppes at North Village Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Habitat will be collecting donated items from the public to use and sell in its ReStore located at 827 S. 9th Street in Downtown St. Joseph.
Also, Bob Evans will donate 15% of proceeds made Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. to the ReStore if customers bring in a ReStore Community Fundraiser flyer that can be picked up at the ReStore location in Downtown St. Joseph.
The Habitat ReStore is a discount home improvement center that sells new and used building materials, furniture, home accessories and appliances at reduced prices to the public. Proceeds from the ReStore go to help fund Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to help families become homeowners who may not be able to do it on their own.
For more information or to donate or volunteer contact Habitat for Humanity at (816) 279-2552 or check out www.habitatstjoe.org.
EUDORA, Kan.- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 12-noon in Douglas County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2009 Harley Davidson driven by Alastair Fraser III, 38, Lenexa, was eastbound on Kansas 10 in Eudora. A dog entered the highway from the north.
The motorcycle went down while attempting to avoid the dog.
Fraser III was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
BURLINGTON, Kan. (AP) — Workers at an eastern Kansas nuclear power plant are working to repair fire-damaged equipment and avoid a shutdown.
The damage occurred Monday when a fire broke out in a room that houses a backup generator. Federal law requires that the generator is operational within 72 hours or the Wolf Creek plant will have to be taken offline.
Shutting down the plant would cost the utilities that own it — and eventually their customers — more than $300,000 per day.
Plant spokesman Terry Young says workers were spending Wednesday conducting testing on a transformer and cabling that were replaced after the fire.
Young says the backup generator is used only when the plant shuts down and stops making its own energy. The plant has other backup energy sources.
Two street maintenance and repair projects are currently in progress on 5th Avenue.
The first, a mill and overlay project, from 18th Street to St. Joseph Avenue, is expected to be complete by the end of the day Thursday, October 9, weather permitting.
The second project involves the bridge just to the east of St. Joseph Avenue. Traffic will be reduced to one lane during the repair of the bridge from 12th Street to 500 feet west. The one-lane traffic will be under signal and/or flag control for the duration of the work. It may be necessary
to, periodically, close this section of 5th Avenue for short durations. The lane closure will begin tomorrow (October 9) and work is expected to be complete by Friday, October 17, weather dependent.
Motorists are encouraged to use an alternate route during the construction period to avoid the area. The suggested alternate route for westbound traffic is south on 12th Street, west on Grand Avenue, then north on St. Joseph Avenue. Eastbound traffic should go south on St. Joseph Avenue, east on Grand Avenue, then north on 12th Street. Parking will be restricted on 12th street between 5th Avenue and Grand Avenue until the repairs are completed.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An 8-month-old Kansas City boy has died a day after a television set fell on him.
Emergency crews were called at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday in response to the accident and took the baby to a hospital in critical condition. A police spokesman issued a news release Wednesday morning saying the boy later died.
Neighbors say they are saddened by the news of the infant’s death, and that it should serve as a reminder to other parents to keep a close eye on their children.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says a child dies every two weeks when a TV or piece of furniture calls onto him or her.
Officials say tip-over accidents are tragic and 100 percent preventable.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A psychiatrist has testified in the seventh day of a trial involving a lawsuit against the Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese.
A former altar boy says he was sexually abused by a priest, now dead, when he was a student in the 1980s. He filed the suit in 2011 against the diocese, claiming it was told about the priest being a danger to children but failed to prevent the abuse.
The Associated Press doesn’t typically name people who say they’re victims of sexual abuse.
The diocese says there’s no credible evidence to prove the man’s allegations and argues that claims of his repressed memories are invalid.
The Kansas City Star reported a California psychiatrist explained to jurors how repressed memory works. He says it’s a term that refers to someone forgetting a past traumatic event for an extended period of time.
ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press
MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government plans to begin taking the temperatures of travelers from West Africa arriving at five U.S. airports as part of a stepped-up response to the Ebola epidemic.
A federal official said Wednesday the screening will begin Saturday at New York’s JFK Airport. Screenings will start next week at Newark, Dulles, Chicago and Atlanta. The official was not authorized to describe the change by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Separately, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Customs and Border Protection agents are handing out information sheets to travelers with details of what symptoms to look for and directions to call doctors if they become sick within 21 days — the incubation period for Ebola.
