Shock as woman who vanished in Death Valley is found ALIVE nine months later
Kelsey Pittman, 33, from North Carolina, was discovered safe in Colorado, authorities announced on Tuesday without providing further details.
Pittman was first reported missing by her family after she stopped communicating with them in November 2024, according to the Inyo County Sheriff's Office.
On February 9, 2025, police received a tip about a suspicious vehicle abandoned near an area frequented by campers known as 'The Pads' or 'Slab City' just off Highway 190.
Police who responded to the scene found Pittman's 2009 Chevrolet HHR, but she was nowhere in sight.
'This led to the initiation of an extensive missing person investigation and search effort,' the sheriff's office said, noting that it coordinated with several law enforcement agencies and employed drones, cadaver dogs and volunteers in the effort.
'Despite exhaustive ground and aerial searches, no additional physical evidence was found at the site,' the sheriff's office said.
Authorities declined to provide additional information.
'Out of respect for her privacy and that of her family, no further details will be released,' the statement read.
Pittman had last been seen in November 2024 while making contact with law enforcement in Utah, the sheriff's office said.
She was known to visit the Las Vegas area.
Her mother had stayed in contact with investigators, even visiting the area to help in the initial search.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Self-imposed lockdowns, surveillance fears and forced separations: life for California's undocumented farmworkers
Driving into the Salinas valley, about two hours south of San Francisco, hand-painted signs fly by, advertising cherries, pistachios, avocados and garlic. From above, the valley looks like a quilt stitched together out of a thousand shades of green – the fields of lettuce, spinach and strawberries that give the region its nickname, 'the salad bowl of the world'. Undocumented farm workers form the unseen backbone of this fertile, year-round agricultural powerhouse, where perfect growing conditions and staggered harvests keep fresh produce flowing non-stop. Tucked in behind a vineyard, in the early morning mist, a crew of farm workers have been cutting cauliflower plants with machetes since 5.30am, while another crew piles the plants into rows. The Guardian spoke to more than a half-dozen Spanish-speaking farm workers at two farms in Salinas Valley about the unprecedented militarized raids on farms, factories, courthouses and other spaces in California this summer, and how the fear they have caused is affecting their lives, families and dreams for the future. Peligro, 52, is the majordomo overseeing the harvest. Despite his nickname, which means 'danger' in Spanish, Peligro has a gentle face and an infectious laugh when he banters with his crew of workers. He moved to Salinas from Guadalajara in Mexico at 18, and all three of his children were born in the US. His eldest son is 22 and would ordinarily be able to sponsor Peligro's green card, but because Peligro entered the country without authorization, he would first have to leave the country and risk being banned from re-entering for 10 years. Peligro's mother, who is 81, has a visa to visit the US, but doesn't want to come because of the political climate. The last time he saw her was when he got married three years ago, and though he sends her money for medicine, he wonders if he will ever see her again. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids that have swept California this summer have his crew on edge, even though there have yet to be Ice raids on farms here in Salinas valley, according to the Rapid Response Network in Monterey county, where Salinas is located. About half of the US's 2.4 million agricultural farm workers do not have legal status, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and that number is even higher in California. It's unclear what percentage of farm workers in Monterey county – one of the California counties with the highest number of farm workers – have legal status, but scanning his crew of 25 workers, Peligro counts only one citizen, two who have visas and two who are currently protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), the 2012 program that gives work permits and temporary status to undocumented migrants who came to the US as children. That means that in this field, 80% of workers are undocumented. The political climate for these workers is leading to chronic hyper-vigilance – a self-imposed lockdown eerily reminiscent of the pandemic's earliest days, but with the additional, ever-present fear of surveillance, disappearance and forced separation from one's US-born children. Workers feel safest at home or here in the fields, Peligro said, so the roads, gas stations, shops and public spaces they once crossed every day now feel treacherous. 'Do you think Americans will do this work?' Peligro said, then immediately answered: 'If they do, they won't do it for $17 an hour. It's really hard work.' *** Over a 9am meal of tortillas, chicken and pasta salad, Lupe, 39, from Jalisco, said she moved here at 13 with her whole family. She made it through three years of high school, learned English and is currently protected from deportation by Daca. But Lupe's current legal status doesn't stop her from fearing deportation: 'I'm watching the news and they're taking people with Daca and visas too.' (Earlier this year, a deaf Daca recipient was swept up in an Ice raid near Los Angeles and was detained for nearly a month, despite his status.) As a single mother and main breadwinner for six children ranging from three to 19, she feels a lot of pressure. 'We're scared. When we go to the store to get groceries, we have the feeling that someone is following us. Sometimes we don't want to go to the doctor or dentist,' said Lupe. She depends on federally funded food assistance, healthcare and pre-school (which are all facing major cuts under the Republicans' new budget bill), and fears this could make her an easy target for Ice agents to track down. She said: 'They have all my information, but small kids have to go to the doctor and the dentist.' As the AP recently revealed, Ice officials are getting access to the personal data of nearly 80 million people on Medicaid in order to identify and locate 'aliens in the United States', forcing people to choose between seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children, or risk deportation and family separation. Lupe is most fearful for her extended family, almost all of whom are undocumented. 'It's bad news every day. I can't live my life like before,' she said. Her mom, who is here on a tourist visa from Mexico, is too scared to take her kids out to the park, so they're spending the summer indoors in their small, cramped house. Cooking, cleaning the house, doing laundry and watching action movies is what helps her take her mind off the news of Ice raids. 'We are hard-working people. We don't come here to take anyone's jobs,' said Lupe. 'We just want to do what we're doing free from fear and be the support for our families.' *** Elvia moved to Salinas 19 years ago from Guanajuato. In addition to her work at the cauliflower farm, Elvia is a member of Líderes Campesinas, an organization that advocates for the human rights of farm-worker women across California. She helps fellow farm-worker women navigate resources, fill gaps related to food insecurity, and organizes to create healthier working conditions. She is one of the two workers in this cauliflower field who has a visa. It's a special kind of non-immigrant visa that protects victims of crimes who suffered substantial mental or physical abuse while in the US. Still, she doesn't feel the visa will protect her. 'It's scary and frustrating to have to go out to work not knowing if we'll return home.' Elvia survived domestic violence by her former husband, who was deported back to Mexico. Her 18-year-old daughter, who is finishing high school and wants to study to be a teacher, is particularly on edge these days. She witnessed the violence against her mother and fears Elvia could be deported back to her former abuser. 'She's always crying, fearing there will be a separation,' said Elvia about how the Ice raids have reopened old wounds for her eldest daughter. Since then, Elvia remarried and also has two other children, ages three and six. After being diagnosed with PTSD, Elvia got therapy and learned some tips for coping with stress. 'Before, I used to scream a lot,' she said. 'Now, I'm trying to find other ways, so that I don't transmit my stress to my small children.' *** Alba, 58, moved to Salinas 30 years ago from the port city of Acapulco. It's been 25 years since she's seen her mother in person and wonders if they will ever meet again. They FaceTime, and Alba sends her money to pay for her arthritis and osteoporosis medicine. She wants to eventually retire in Mexico, but fears that if she returns now, or gets deported by Ice, she won't be able to come back to the US and make enough money to pay for her mom's medicine. 'My dream is to have a house where I could welcome my mom and get her visa,' Alba said. After work, which ends at about 2.30pm, Alba used to go to watch the ocean waves lap on the beach in Monterey, or go shopping, but now she stays home and tends to her roses. On her phone's photo roll, she pulls up a rainbow of flower pictures she's grown with the little outdoor space she has access to. She grows tomatoes, flowers, chilli and yerba buena. Alba knows many people who qualify for the supplemental nutrition assistance program (Snap) but don't apply for it in case it could somehow hurt their immigration status in the future. During the first Trump administration, a 'public charge' rule was introduced for a little more than a year to make it harder for people to get visas or green cards if they used or had used public nutrition, housing and health programs. Until recently, Alba would work six days a week, for up to 10 hours a day, but a new law requiring overtime pay means that farms hire workers for a maximum of 40 hours a week. She would like to see land be made available to farm workers so that they could grow their own crops and sell the bounty themselves. Líderes Campesinas, for which Alba is on the Salinas organizing committee, currently has a bill before the state assembly that would help people in worker cooperatives and non-profit cooperatives, like Alba, access such land. For now, she has managed to find space to garden in the back of a church, which this year opened a community garden with half a dozen raised beds, fitted with irrigation. Walking around the church garden, Alba shows off all the herbs, tomatoes and strawberries she's been growing under a giant walnut tree. Maria has been picking and weeding lettuce, broccoli, artichoke and more up and down the Salinas valley since 2007. 'We live day to day with this fear,' said Maria over a tamarind soda in the corner of a restaurant where she felt safe enough to meet. 'I've always lived with the fear that they [Ice] might pass us, but today it's much bigger.' Like Alba, Maria used to go to the beach or go shopping after work, but these days she goes straight home to her three daughters, 10, 12 and 17, who 'are panicking and stressed', wondering if she'll make it home from work or get taken away by Ice. 'My daughters have fear, panic and tremors with anxiety,' said Maria. Ten years ago, when her eldest was seven and the others were still babies, Maria's husband went out to buy bread and milk for the kids and never came back. She said he was detained by Ice, deported to Mexico and they haven't seen him in person since, though they speak over the phone. Maria doesn't have a backup plan for her daughters if she gets deported. She doesn't trust anyone. When her eldest turns 18, she hopes she can transfer custody to her for the younger girls, if necessary. But her 17-year-old, despite years of therapy, suffers from 'nervous breakdowns' and engages in self-harm, Maria said. When she goes to work, Maria tries to leave her with a babysitter. Listening to music helps to calm her daughter's nerves. 'It's hard as a mother to be in such insecurity. I don't want to leave her alone,' said Maria, so the prospects of transferring custody to her feel unimaginable. The constant uncertainty and panic, she said, was 'like a thorn stuck in your side that's constantly pricking'. The Guardian is not using the full names of the people in this article to protect them and their families
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Exclusive: SpaceX employee claims he was fired for flagging ‘despicable' safety practices that put lives at risk
A former SpaceX supervisor is accusing the company of 'despicable conduct' regarding its safety practices, claiming, among other things, that chronic understaffing was resulting in serious injuries where overworked employees were 'too fearful to report.' In a scathing civil lawsuit filed initially in state court and removed to Los Angeles federal court last Friday, Robert Markert describes raising 'strong concerns' about revising a technical process that could 'easily cause serious injury or death.' However, Markert's complaint contends, SpaceX opted to keep things as-is because it was 'more economical.' Markert, who spent nearly 14 years at SpaceX before he was fired, oversaw a team of 16 technicians responsible for retrieving the company's rockets upon their return to Earth and preparing them for reuse. His complaint claims SpaceX refused to dial back a dangerously jam-packed launch schedule, forced people to work up to three weeks in a row without a break and skimped on vital instructional programs in an attempt to save money. When Markert, 37, voiced his concerns to management, he claims he was told that 'the schedule comes first,' according to his complaint. When he tried to schedule days off for his crew, Markert was 'chastised [by] his leadership team,' the complaint alleges. And when Markert flagged a crucial manpower shortage on the ships SpaceX uses to fetch spacecraft at sea, he says he was told he 'needed to bring solutions, not problems.' In one instance, Markert suggested to higher-ups that SpaceX 'needed to prioritize' more training sessions for workers to get properly certified in certain areas, according to the complaint. But, it maintains, he was told that 'there is no time for that and the company would not spend the money on it.' The privately-held commercial launch services company founded and controlled by Elon Musk, the world's richest person, expects to book revenues this year of more than $15 billion. Markert was let go this spring by SpaceX, which has seen four of its rockets explode so far in 2025. His complaint argues his termination was due in part to his criticisms of the company's safety shortcomings. Reached by phone, Markert referred The Independent to his attorney, who was traveling Monday and unable to comment. SpaceX officials, along with the outside lawyers defending SpaceX against Markert's claims, did not respond to requests for comment. Last year, Musk moved the 13,000-strong firm's headquarters from California to Texas, amid a feud with 'woke' Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Markert worked at a SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, about 20 miles south of Los Angeles. SpaceX has faced other recent lawsuits filed by ex-employees who felt they, too, had been wronged on the job. Earlier this month, a Black materials inspector at the same plant as Markert sued SpaceX after being fired for tardiness, which he alleged was overlooked if the offender happened to be white. In May, a SpaceX worker in Washington State who suffered from Crohn's disease filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming his supervisors timed his bathroom breaks and wrote him up if he spent more than 10 minutes on the toilet. (Crohn's can cause urgent, often uncontrollable, bowel movements.) Markert's complaint says he was 'well liked by his peers, and consistently received positive performance reviews.' At the same time, Markert 'frequently brought up safety and labor concerns,' according to the complaint. Concerned about the unforced errors that fatigued employees tend to make, Markert informed his bosses that 'several technicians were being required to work sometimes 15 to 20 days in a row without a day off,' and that others were denied rest periods during their shifts, the complaint states. According to the complaint, SpaceX management told Markert that 'the schedule comes first.' If he tried to schedule a day off for an exhausted underling, Markert would be 'chastised' by his supervisors. And when Markert tried to persuade SpaceX to add more bodies to his team, the complaint says he was 'shut down.' '[Markert] informed his senior leadership that many of the technicians were being overworked as they were not staffing enough technicians on ships,' the complaint goes on. 'This resulted in technicians doing multiple duties simultaneously in a high stress and extremely dangerous environment which resulted in injuries that technicians were too fearful to report. After voicing concerns to leadership, [Markert] was frequently told he needed to bring solutions, not problems. However, when [Markert] suggested more technicians, he was denied.' If SpaceX wouldn't hire more technicians, Markert 'suggested they dial back on the mission manifest,' but was 'told the Vice President of Launch would never allow that,' according to the complaint. In early 2025, it says Markert raised 'strong concerns' about a process involving the recovery of rocket fairings he considered extremely unsafe, and one he believed could seriously injure, or even kill, somebody. He recommended the company create a new system to reduce the risk, the complaint states. 'The company decided not to act on the issue and kept the… process as it was because it was the more economical solution,' according to the complaint. Markert's tenure at SpaceX came to an end in April 2025, which he claims was retaliation for consistently flagging safety problems, as well as an apparently confounding issue with one of his subordinates. In early 2024, Markert agreed to hire a SpaceX employee from the East Coast, who had filed a discrimination complaint against her previous team and was looking for a 'fresh start,' the complaint explains. It says the transfer employee complained frequently to Markert about coworkers underperforming or misbehaving. He took her grievances seriously, and duly brought them to human resources, but they often turned out to be exaggerated or even fabricated, according to the complaint. A year later, on the transfer employee's last day with SpaceX, she filed a discrimination report against someone on Markert's team, his complaint says. An investigation substantiated the claims, which are not laid out in the complaint, and on April 2, 2025, Markert was fired. When he asked what he had done wrong, the SpaceX HR reps told Markert they 'could not share any details,' according to the complaint. Markert was informed he was eligible for rehire elsewhere at SpaceX, but claims HR quietly made sure there were no takers. Adding insult to injury, Markert – whose complaint describes him as a 'lifer' who hoped to retire from SpaceX – forfeited more than $3.5 million in as-yet unvested SpaceX equity that would have become his over the next six years. Additionally, Markert says he lost out on at least $1,219,457 in lost salary and benefits, and at least $1,172,287 in future lost equity. Markert's complaint argues that he 'engaged in the protected activities of raising safety and labor concerns and reporting discrimination on behalf of a subordinate and participating in the subsequent investigation,' yet 'suffered the adverse employment actions of retaliatory termination.' He is now seeking compensatory damages, special damages, and general damages totaling $5,966,214, plus punitive damages to be determined by a jury. In a response filed prior to moving the case from state to federal court, SpaceX argued that Markert was an 'at-will employee' and claimed he was 'terminated for legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons.' The company further says it has made 'a good faith effort to comply with all applicable anti-discrimination and retaliation laws,' and that it does not owe punitive damages because it has 'not engaged in any alleged conduct with malice or reckless indifference to the protected rights of any aggrieved individual.' SpaceX does not owe Markert any other damages, its response argues, claiming 'such damages, if any, are too speculative to be recoverable at law.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Footage shows moment federal agents storm Delta Airlines flight to cuff pilot
Federal authorities stormed the flight deck of a Delta Airlines flight in San Francisco to arrest the co-pilot an lead him off the plane in handcuffs. The federal agents entered Flight 2809 from Minneapolis shortly after it landed at the San Francisco International Airport at around 9.35pm on Saturday. They were filmed wearing plainclothes and law enforcement badges around their necks. But passengers said the group of 10 officers included agents from Homeland Security Investigations and others who identified as federal air marshals. A passenger who was sitting in first class told the San Francisco Chronicle: 'A group of people with badges, guns and different agency vests/markings were pushing their way through the aisle to the cockpit.' She added that the officers 'stormed the cockpit, cuffed the pilot, arrested him, walked him down the aisle and ushered him off the plane through the cabin doors located between first and coach'. Soon after, a second team of agents returned to the plane to collect the pilot's personal belongings. Authorities did not immediately reveal why the co-pilot was apprehended. But Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin cited a senior federal official who claims the co-pilot was taken into custody by Homeland Security Investigations on allegations involving child sexual abuse materials. The remaining pilot said he had no idea what was happening and a passenger on the flight recounted asking a member of the flight crew what was happening. 'I looked at him and said "What's going on?" He said, "I have no idea,"' the passenger told Fox 9, adding: 'And he genuinely looked like this was a surprise, that all of a sudden there was people on the plane, because he had us stand up, we were starting to take our stuff out for arrival and everybody was already in the overhead bin.' The passenger who spoke to the Chronicle ultimately called the experience 'shocking and unnerving', noting that those on board received no information from the crew about what had occurred. has reached out to Delta Airlines and Homeland Security for more information.
