Lowell police search for missing 4-year-old boy in Merrimack River
Lowell police are searching for a 4-year-old boy who went missing in the Merrimack River on Saturday.
A 911 caller notified authorities that the boy was in the water by the Western Canal near 300 Arcand Drive shortly before 5:45 p.m., Lowell police said in the press release. The preliminary investigation suggests that the boy was quickly pulled into the Merrimack River by the current.
Lowell police and firefighters responded to the call immediately, and Massachusetts State Police, UMass Lowell Police and Massachusetts Environmental Police are now aiding the ongoing search, police said. They are utilizing a dive team, an Airwing team and drones in their efforts to locate the boy.
Firefighters in Dracut, Methuen and Lawrence have also searched downstream in the river for the boy, police said. An investigation into how the boy ended up in the water remains ongoing.
No further information has been released.
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Karen Read defense gets boost as plow driver testifies he saw no body in snow during Boston cop death case
Karen Read's lucky charm may be a plow driver who saw nothing during multiple passes by the address where she is accused of leaving her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, to die on the ground in a blizzard in January 2022. Brian 'Lucky' Loughran testified Wednesday that he didn't see a body on the lawn as he cleared snow on the street in the hours after prosecutors allege the victim stopped moving. Advertisement According to prosecution experts, O'Keefe's last known activity came to a stop around 12:30 a.m., and his body allegedly did not move until first responders arrived around 6 a.m. 'I saw nothing,' Loughran told defense attorney David Yannetti, speaking of his first pass around 2:45 a.m. He cleared that side of the block, turned around at the end and saw nothing again when he went back the other way. He testified that he passed by 34 Fairview Road, the home of Brian Albert where John O'Keefe was found dead in the snow, in both directions multiple times between 2:40 a.m. and around 6 a.m. Advertisement Prosecutors allege Read hit her boyfriend outside and drove off, leaving him to die in blizzard conditions. Loughran said he had good visibility despite the blizzard conditions due to multiple lights on the plow truck and a high seat. 6 Brian Loughran testified that he didn't see John O'Keefe's body on the lawn. AP When asked if he saw a body in the snow, he said he did not, but he added that he did see a Ford Edge SUV parked outside the address during a later pass around 3:30 a.m. Advertisement 'Loughran's adamance that there was nobody on the lawn after 2:30 a.m., one day after an active-duty officer was adamant that the taillight he saw before the [Massachusetts State Police] had it was not destroyed, are major blows to a prosecution case that already has had severe problems,' said Mark Bederow, a New York City defense attorney closely following the case. Loughran said the Ford Edge stood out to him because he was from the area and knew the Albert family, and he said he had to maneuver around the vehicle as he cleared the road. 'For as long as I can remember, they have never parked a vehicle in front of their house,' Loughran testified. 'They've always had enough ample parking in the driveway.' Special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked Loughran during cross-examination about purported threats from an online blogger and inconsistencies in his timeline. Advertisement 6 Prosecutors claim Read hit her boyfriend with a car in blizzard conditions and drove off. AP Loughran said he never felt threatened by the blogger and denied having a bad memory when Brennan confronted him with multiple statements that offered different times for when the driver passed by Fairview Road. 'Mr. Loughran was adamant that he was not intimidated or threatened in exchange for his testimony, which substantially favored Karen Read,' said Bederow, who represents Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as 'Turtleboy.' Loughran now follows the blog but said he had met with a private investigator working for the defense before Kearney ever contacted him, but he added that he barely paid attention to the posts beforehand. 'I did not know I was being required to testify a certain way,' he said. 'I was also, at the time, dealing with the loss of my wife. I was not paying any attention to any social media.' Overall, he came off as sincere and sympathetic, according to Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts trial attorney who is following the case. 6 Loughran drove past the address multiple times during the blizzard. AP 'Lucky said, 'I was doing my job and I did not want the attention, I did not welcome the attention,'' she told Fox News Digital. 'I'm sure some people in the courtroom wanted to give him a hug after he said, 'I wasn't paying attention to social media because my wife had died.'' Advertisement Brennan played police dashcam video taken outside 34 Fairview Road that showed heavy snowfall and the distance between the house there and Cedarcrest Road, where a plow truck drove by multiple times in the background, in an attempt to illustrate for the jurors how far the nearest pass would have been from the lawn. 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AP 'I'd never seen something like that before; a boyfriend do [that] to a girlfriend in public,' she said. 'Never saw that, so it just stood out to me. I was like, 'Wow, that's the sweetest thing I've ever seen.'' That nugget could also boost the defense, Bederow said, after Read's team introduced evidence that ATF Agent Brian Higgins, another man at the bar that night, was exchanging flirtatious text messages with their client behind her boyfriend's back. 'Kolokithas' description of John being affectionate with Karen right in front of Higgins minutes before Higgins seemingly was agitated towards John and had to be calmed down by Chris Albert, around the time Jen McCabe oddly told Karen she was leaving with her, was also helpful to the defense,' he said. Surveillance video appeared to show Higgins and O'Keefe gesturing at one another from across the room shortly before the group left and headed to Brian Albert's house at 34 Fairview Road. 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Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Denver Hairstylist Left Her Apartment and Vanished. Over a Month Later, Mom Fears the Worst: 'I Am Terrified' (Exclusive)
Jax Gratton, a 34-year-old hairstylist, was last seen leaving her apartment in Denver on Tuesday, April 15 More than a month later, her mom tells PEOPLE she's "terrified" that something awful has happened to her daughter "At this time, nothing has been recovered that indicates she has been harmed, however, her disappearance is being taken seriously," the Denver Police Department tells PEOPLEA mom's fear has reached new heights now that her daughter, a Denver hairstylist, has been missing for more than a month. 'I am terrified for my daughter,' Cherilynne Gratton-Camis, 60, tells PEOPLE. 'I just need to keep her face and her beautiful self out there until we find her.' Gratton-Camis has been actively searching for Jax Gratton, 34, since she was last seen leaving her Denver apartment on Tuesday, April 15. 'My fear is that somebody killed her,' says Gratton-Camis, who alleges that her daughter had been in abusive relationships in the past. 'That is my fear.' A Denver Police Department (DPD) spokesperson tells PEOPLE that officials are 'actively looking into Jax Gratton's whereabouts" and that "at this time, nothing has been recovered that indicates she has been harmed." 'This is a priority for our Missing and Exploited Persons Unit and they are working with Jax's family on this case,' the spokesperson continues in a statement. 'Her disappearance is being taken seriously by DPD.' Jax was last seen near the 4200 block of E. Iliff Avenue, police say. Friends and family told ABC affiliate KMGH-TV that Jax left her apartment at approximately 10 p.m. local time and told her roommate that she'd be out for about three hours — but she never came back. Gratton-Camis, who lives out of state, last talked to her eldest daughter on Friday, April 11, when Jax called to get the address of her 19-year-old sister Monroe, who is in college, so she could send her some hair products. 'She was absolutely beautiful, full makeup… and happy,' says the mom. 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While the roommate did contact police, a report wasn't filed, so Gratton-Camis rushed to get one submitted — and by Wednesday, April 24, over a week after she was last seen, Jax was officially reported as missing. Even as friends and customers raised the alert in the following weeks — posting on social media and putting up flyers throughout the city — there has been little movement in the case and Jax's mom says that investigators have eliminated the 'short suspect list' she gave them. Gratton-Camis says that her daughter hasn't touched the money in her bank account — 'Jax works very, very hard and she would not have left with money behind,' she says — and that she also doesn't believe her daughter would have left her cat behind. Additionally, Gratton-Camis says it's out of character for Jax to stop communicating with her or Monroe. Despite Jax's struggles – she had been to rehab three times for drugs and alcohol, the last of which kicked her out because she's transgender, her mom alleges – the hairstylist was doing well before she disappeared. 'She operated a successful business,' says Gratton-Camis. 'She has friends that she has been friends with since middle school.' The woman donated her time as a stylist to unhoused people in the area and loved her family. Gratton-Camis adds Jax was an integral part of her support system when she was diagnosed with colon and breast cancer a few years ago. 'Jax would call me and FaceTime me… to put me in a good mood, do a dance,' her mom remembers. 'I could barely speak, but I could hit the phone and watch her do silly things to make me feel better.' Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In a statement she wrote, Gratton-Camis describes Jax as a 'daughter of love' and a 'friend like no other.' 'An advocate with fire, driven by purpose, a soul full of laughter, and hands never idle,' Cherilynne continues. 'She lives with honesty, shined with truth, and is cherished beyond words.' Authorities urge anyone with information about Jax to call 720-913-7867. Her mom says she is at least 5 feet, 11 inches tall and could have a range of hair colors because she often dyed it. Jax's community has also created a website to assist in the search. Read the original article on People
Black America Web
14 hours ago
- Black America Web
Security Guard Diddy Paid $100K For Cassie Assault Video Testifies As Screaming Woman Forcibly Removed From Court
Source: Variety / Getty Diddy's sex trafficking and racketeering trial has largely been supported by victim testimonies, text messages and photos like the ones of Kid Cudi's burned Porsche, but the most damning has been the video. The video of Diddy beating and dragging his then girlfriend, Cassie, through the hallways of a California hotel made its way through the court of public opinion, and now it's the subject of the latest person to testify against him. Eddie Garcia, who worked at the InterContinental in Los Angeles in March 2016, took the stand to tell the story of how much Diddy never wanted the tape to see the light of day. According to NBC News , he remembers clocking in to work that day, brought up to speed about the assault, but 'was told Ms. Ventura did not request the presence of police or medical attention.' In the days after the assault, Diddy's team began to understand the video's potential damage, as former chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, repeatedly called the hotel to get the footage, and eventually Diddy himself, who tried to justify his actions. 'He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering,' Garcia remembers Diddy saying, adding that he was ' just saying he had a little too much to drink.' Garcia said Diddy also told him, 'With women, one thing leads to another, and if this got out, it would ruin him.' Garcia says that Diddy was willing to pay for the sole copy of the footage, and his boss agreed to a $50,000 fee. 'He referred to me as 'Eddy, my angel,'' Garcia said. The deal came together as he got on a FaceTime call with Diddy and Ventura, who Diddy told to say she also wanted the video to disappear. The security guard was then told to sign a $1 million penalty NDA, —which was later presented in court— and Diddy walked into a room with a money counter and $100,000 in a brown paper bag. Combs said he doubled the original amount so he could split it with the other security guards who were aware of the situation. Combs warned him not to make any large purchases so as not to draw attention to himself, so he spent the money on a used car. He even contacted Garcia weeks later to ask him if there had been any rumblings about the video, telling him, 'Happy Easter. You are my angel. God is good. God put you in my life for a reason.' Prior to Garcia's account of Diddy paying him off, there was a disruption in the courtroom when a woman in the gallery, who claimed to be a transit employee, began acting up. 'Everyone is laughing at Diddy! It's not right what they're doing to him!' she screamed as U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian instructed her to be removed. See social media's latest responses to the Diddy trial below. Security Guard Diddy Paid $100K For Cassie Assault Video Testifies As Screaming Woman Forcibly Removed From Court was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
