Category: CNN Regional

By Carter Williams, KSL

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    KANAB, Utah (KSL) — State officials are offering a $3,000 reward as they continue to investigate who stole a human skull from a protected ancient burial site in southern Utah.

The investigation began in January, after archaeologists were alerted by a person concerned about a Facebook post photo depicting a person posing with human remains. It was passed around to various government agencies to determine its location and jurisdiction before experts were able to determine that the remains were on land managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration east of Kanab in Kane County, said Joel Boomgarden, the trust’s lead archaeologist.

The agency traveled to the site and found that the skull had been removed from the remains at the site. It’s unclear if anything else was taken from the site, which was found to be an ancient burial in the 1990s.

The trust lands administration announced information about the theft on Monday, adding that it’s offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible in the case.

“(Land vandalism cases) come up from time to time. … Sometimes it’s malicious; sometimes it’s just people loving the site to death, they start visiting the site and things just start to deteriorate. But this one clearly seems to (have) a malicious intent,” Boomgarden told KSL. “I don’t understand what causes a person to do this sort of thing. It’s beyond me.”

Trust officials declined to share photos or the exact location on Monday to dissuade further damage to the site.

Boomgarden’s team is currently working on a formal redocumentation of the site in the wake of the theft. It’s unclear how old the remains are, but Boomgarden points out that Kanab is home to plenty of “basketmaker era archaeology” dating back thousands of years.

“It’s an important site. I mean, all these sites are important,” he said. “Any time you have human remains, it’s a sensitive site.”

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Utah Attorney General’s Office at 801-538-5113 or send an email with information to aginvestcomplaints@agutah.gov. The office says it will respect requests to remain anonymous.

The incident comes after another land vandalism case in Kane County, which made headlines last year. A Washington County woman was arrested in connection with the defacement of an ancient petroglyph near the confluence of Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch.

She was ordered to pay nearly $15,000 in fines and restitution, and write an apology letter to all “relevant stakeholder tribes” in the area as part of her sentence handed down last month, after pleading guilty in the case.

State archaeologists and local tribes said that the incident underscored the growing problem of land vandalism on sacred Native American sites.

“It takes away that tangible connection for people to realize that Southern Paiute people have been on this landscape for eons,” said Autumn Gillard, cultural resource manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, last year. “It’s an erasure of us.”

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by KSL’s editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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By Melissa Luck

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    COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (KXLY) — Six inmates who experienced symptoms of a fentanyl overdose were taken to the hospital, then returned to the Kootenai County Jail.

Now, one of them is charged with bringing the drug into the facility.

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded Saturday evening to two inmates having a medical emergency.

The deputies quickly identified fentanyl overdose symptoms and administered Narcan, reviving both inmates.

Shortly after, other inmates started experiencing the same symptoms – six in all.

The inmates were taken to the hospital and received treatment, then returned to the jail.

Deputies searching the jail found trace amounts of fentanyl.

Raymond D. Spezzi, who was one of the initial inmates treated, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance inside a correctional facility.

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By Laurie Perez, Dean Fioresi

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    RIALTO, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Wild dashcam video footage shows the dramatic moments that a pickup truck launches off an overpass in Rialto before going airborne and crashing onto the 210 Freeway below on Friday night.

It happened at around 6:30 p.m. near the Ayala Drive exit, according to Vanessa Alveal, who witnessed the intense moments on her way home from work.

“Passing by the bridge, I just saw the truck literally flying from the bridge and I hit the brake, because I was coming, like, 60 miles per hour,” Alveal recalled. “I just didn’t know if it was a car or an airplane, because I just saw this white thing just flew in front of me.”

The dashcam video showed the white pickup truck as it went airborne, clearing several lanes before landing on an SUV on the eastbound side of the freeway below. The truck then rolled, eventually coming to a stop in westbound lanes.

“It was very scary, because it was something I’d never experienced before,” Alveal said. “I mean, you see it on movies, not in real life like that.”

She was directly behind the SUV that the truck landed on top of, Alveal recalled, saying she was quick enough to slam her brakes before crashing into the chaotic scene herself. After getting out of her car, Alveal says her instincts took over and she rushed to the pickup truck, which wound up on its roof near the center divider of the freeway.

“I was able to get one of the guys around there. I don’t even know who he was. They helped me to kind of climb on top of the truck, the door, to kind of see, because we couldn’t see who was inside,” she said. “So, we wanted to see if everybody, if anybody was badly injured. We wanted to see if we could help out anybody.”

Alveal says that the driver was bleeding but conscious after the crash. He and another person inside of the SUV were taken to hospitals by ambulance, she said. Though their conditions remain unclear in the days following the crash, witnesses said that there were no fatalities as a result.

“I’m, like, traumatized,” Alveal said. “Like, I drove today and I was like, I’m still kind of scared to, I don’t want to be driving much, and even on the freeway. … I’m scared right now.”

Circumstances surrounding the moments that led up to the crash remain unclear and CBS Los Angeles has reached out to the California Highway Patrol in hopes for more information, but has not yet heard back.

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By Logan Smith

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    DENVER (KCNC) — A 37-year-old Denver area man was recently found guilty of trying to hide in Mexico after fatally stabbing a woman he was dating two years ago.

An Adams County jury convicted Adrian Carracedo-Vega of first-degree murder on Nov. 24. The judge immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility for parole.

Sachely Diaz was found crawling in an alley behind an apartment building on Dec. 20, 2023. She was near the apartment building’s dumpsters in the 1700 block of West 85th Avenue in Federal Heights. She was covered in blood and, according to Adams County prosecutors, told a witness, “I’m dying, I’m dying.”

Diaz had been stabbed twice in her torso. She died after being taken to a hospital. She was 20 years old.

A friend had reported her missing earlier that day when she failed to return from an appointment at a nail salon.

Remarkably, a Thornton woman called police 14 minutes after Diaz passed away, according to a case document. That woman described a bloody pile of clothes she found in her bedroom which she believed belonged the father of her child, Carracedo-Vega. The woman also said her roommate’s car was missing. Carracedo-Vega had previously borrowed the vehicle from her roommate had keys to it, as stated in Carracedo-Vega’s arrest affidavit.

The woman told investigators she learned a year and a half earlier that Carracedo-Vega had been established a relationship with Diaz. She continued a “platonic” relationship with Carracedo-Vega since she had at that time just given birth to their child and, in her words to investigators, became “acquiescent.”

The car was found the following day in Denver. Investigators discovered blood smears on a rear fender and strands of black hair pinched in a door handle, per the affidavit. Inside the car, next to the center console, they found a 27-inch, straight-blade sword. Investigators said it had blood stains along its entire length.

That blood was confirmed to be Diaz’s.

A week later, prosecutors with the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Adams County filed a murder charge against Carracedo-Vega. A federal arrest warrant was issued.

He was caught four months later in Mexico.

Prosecutors pointed out Carracedo-Vega’s cell phone was in the area of the nail salon at the time of Diaz’s disappearance.

“This was a brutal killing and the defendant has now been held accountable,” 17th District Attorney Brian Mason stated in a press release. “Sachely Diaz was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Her tragic murder is a stark reminder of the devastating impact of domestic violence in this community. Today, her family hopefully gets some measure of peace, though the pain of their loss will never go away.”

The trial lasted six days.

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By Jazmon DeJarnette

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    SALINAS, California (KSBW) — Around 3:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, officers responded to Camarillo Court in east Salinas. When they arrived, they found a 14-year-old with multiple gunshot wounds.

The Salinas Union High School District confirms the teen was one of their students.

A neighbor I spoke with ran out of his house after hearing the shots and found the teen lying on the curb.

“There was the boy lying there, and that was all I saw, and from then on, I didn’t know what happened,” said the neighbor.

Another neighbor told me she first thought she was hearing fireworks, until she saw a group of teens running down the street away from the gunfire.

“I was like, oh, I don’t think that’s normal. And then, like a few seconds later, I saw, like, two neighbors run towards the direction where the shots were heard. And I said, ‘No, that’s not typical behavior for fireworks,'” said the other neighbor.

Neighbors say gang activity is common in this area — pointing to tagging on the wall as just one example.

“I would say, like, half and half. I mean, sometimes they do. But then just seeing the wall tagged up makes me kind of feel unease,” said the neighbor.

They’re calling for the violence to stop, saying too many teens in Salinas have access to weapons.

“I would say that they shouldn’t sell us guns, or that they should prohibit them,” said a neighbor.

Salinas Police Department confirmed that they’ll keep working through the weekend to find who’s responsible, and they’re asking anyone with information to come forward.

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By Renee Anderson

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — A homeless man who police say was set on fire while sleeping on a New York City subway car has been reunited with his family.

The man’s son shared a photo of them at the hospital Sunday, saying the family had been looking for him for weeks and just learned about his whereabouts.

His family said he already underwent one surgery and will need another because of the severity of his burns.

The attack happened shortly after 3 a.m. last Monday on a northbound 3 train in midtown Manhattan. Police said the victim was asleep on the train when it pulled into 34th Street Penn Station, where the suspect briefly stepped onto the train and set his pants on fire.

The victim remained on the train until it pulled into 42nd Street-Times Square, and an MTA worker flagged down first responders.

Police arrested 18-year-old Hiram Carrero, of Manhattan, days later on charges of attempted murder, arson, assault and criminal mischief in the attack.

“As alleged, Hiram Carrero committed a horrific arson, starting a fire inside of a New York City subway car where a victim was sleeping,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement after Carrero’s arrest. “As a result of that arson, the victim has suffered severe injuries. The New York City subway is the heart of our City, with millions of people who live and work here relying on it every day. New Yorkers have the right to be safe and feel safe when they ride the subway, and our Office is committed to that result.”

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