Paradise News

Tag: Americas

  • Man arrested nearly 46 years after allegedly killing 2 people and placing bodies over guardrail

    HAMPDEN COUNTY, Mass. (TCN) — After more than four decades, authorities recently arrested a 71-year-old Florida man on suspicion of killing a man and woman in Massachusetts.

    According to Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, on Nov. 19, 1978, authorities discovered the bodies of 18-year-old Theresa Marcoux and 20-year-old Mark Harnish over a guardrail with apparent gunshot wounds. West Springfield Police observed a 1967 Dodge pickup truck in a rest area nearby with damage to the driver’s side window, as well as blood in and around the vehicle.

    Gulluni said Marcoux and Harnish were last seen alive in the early hours of Nov. 19, 1978, after leaving a party. The vehicle found by police reportedly belonged to Harnish. Officers didn’t recover a firearm from the area but searched the scene and collected evidence.

    According to Gulluni, authorities determined the victims had been shot while in the passenger compartment of the truck before their bodies were moved to the nearby guardrail. An autopsy confirmed they each died of multiple gunshot wounds. The district attorney said an individual in the area reported possible gunshots at around 4 a.m. that day.

    Investigators collected spent projectiles from the remains of Harnish and Marcoux, as well as from the vehicle, and determined they had been fired from the same gun. Inside the truck, officials reportedly found an impression on some blood that didn’t belong to the victims.

    According to prosecutors, investigators recently identified Timothy Joley as the primary suspect in Marcoux and Harnish’s shooting deaths. The district attorney said they compared Joley’s fingerprint identification card to the latent print and determined it was a match.

    Joley reportedly purchased a gun approximately a month before allegedly killing the victims. Prosecutors noted he was licensed to own the weapon.

    Police arrested Joley at his home in Clearwater, Florida, on Oct. 30. He appeared in court on Nov. 5 and will be extradited back to Massachusetts to face two counts of murder.

    According to the district attorney, both Marcoux and Harnish had attended East Longmeadow High School. Marcoux reportedly worked as a clerk at a local hardware store, and Harnish worked at a car repair shop.

    Gulluni said, “Tragically, their young lives were cut far too short by a horrendous act of violence.”

    MORE:

    • Arrest made in decades-old homicide – Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni

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  • NIH Gives Public University $5 Mil to Study if its Racial Equity Consciousness Institute Works

    A public university in Pennsylvania is getting $5 million from American taxpayers to research the effectiveness of a special center it launched in 2021 to address systemic racism. It is called the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute (RECI) and its founders at the University of Pittsburgh claim it is essential because “systemic racism is an endemic public health crisis in the United States that has a profoundly negative impact on the mental and physical health of millions of people—focally, people of color.” Furthermore, racism is a “social virus” that metastasizes through a web of systems that sustains a reinforcing preponderance of racial inequities across multiple sectors of society, according to RECI.

    Since it was launched by Ron Idoko, who previously worked at the school’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, RECI has worked to eradicate systemic racism by developing a critical understanding of the complex and pervasive ways it operates and establishing strategies to foster racial equity. The institute claims to teach individuals about the racial equity consciousness framework by using narrative guides, videos, articles, open discussion and collaborative activities. To develop racial equity consciousness the institute teaches how to recognize racial oppression and advance racial liberation, examine racial identities and address racial biases, embrace racial diversity, and grow racial literacy, build racial empathy, and enhance racial stamina, acknowledge racial trauma, and foster racial healing, and gauge racial inequities and champion racial justice. This helps recognize histories and impacts of racial inequity, embraces the inclusion of all racial identity groups, builds compassionate connections across racial differences, and acknowledges emotional, mental, and physical impacts of racial oppression, among other things.

    The institute uses “structured cognitive behavioral training” (SCBT) to address and determine thoughts, feelings and behaviors toward racial equity and justice. This is described as an instructional, process-oriented derivative of cognitive behavioral therapy that provides an empowering tool and approach to consciously address and assert one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward racial equity and justice. The program is designed to help individuals and communities actively develop and embody distinct cognitive behavioral traits toward racial equity through structured learning and practice. “Learners” are encouraged to reflect on and address systemic factors that contribute to racial disparities and develop systemic processes toward racial equity. “Through this approach, we can understand how to take the transformation within ourselves and bring it into a world of structures and systems, transforming them in the process,” according to the RECI website. “Thus, every person committed to antiracism becomes a source of positive change that radiates out into the world.”

    Sounds fantastic but there is no concrete evidence that it is working. The research funded by the NIH will focus on identifying the effectiveness of RECI training as well as other bias drills on diversity and attitudes that perpetuate systemic racism in healthcare outcomes, especially among marginalized communities. Outcomes of the intervention will be measured through questionnaires and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that looks for structural brain changes before and after the program. The randomized trial will involve participants from over two dozen schools. One of the University of Pittsburgh researchers says she is excited about the possibility of generating evidence of the effectiveness of RECI because so far, the center relies on people claiming it has changed their life. The institute’s founder claims he has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from hundreds of participants and has also seen behavioral changes firsthand, but again, no material evidence.

    So, Uncle Sam will dole out millions to see if the institute actually helps combat the public health crisis of systemic racism. “These inequities are perpetuated through normative, and often unconscious, biases and behaviors,” the Pittsburgh researchers write in their NIH grant document. “In recent years, academic institutions have devised new policies and initiatives to promote inclusive excellence, and in doing so have put a greater burden on underrepresented (UR) faculty to lead these efforts. Yet, many UR faculty are continuing to disproportionately leave the academy, indicating that academic institutions have not succeeded in their goal of dismantling systemic inequities and making academia more inclusive.”

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  • Husband charged with allegedly killing missing wife Ana Knezevich in Spain

    MIAMI (TCN) — Federal prosecutors announced murder charges against a man they allege killed his missing wife in Spain and then disposed of her body, which has yet to be found.

    Court records obtained by “True Crime News” show a grand jury in Miami returned a superseding indictment against David Knezevich on Nov. 13, charging him with kidnapping resulting in death, foreign domestic violence resulting in death, and foreign murder of a United States national in connection with Ana Knezevich’s disappearance and death.

    Federal officials originally arrested Knezevich on a kidnapping charge in May when he returned to Miami from his native Serbia.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges Knezevich traveled to Serbia and drove to Spain, where his wife was living. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Knezevich buying spray paint and duct tape from a local store on Feb. 2, the last day Ana Knezevich was seen alive. Video footage showed a man in a motorcycle helmet covering a surveillance camera with black spray paint in Ana Knezevich’s building.

    According to the Miami Herald, Knezevich could face the death penalty if convicted.

    Ana Knezevich and David Knezevich ran a successful business together in Fort Lauderdale, but then they broke up after 13 years of marriage. The two had reportedly been arguing about finances prior to her disappearance. Following the split, Ana Knezevich, who originally hailed from Colombia but was a U.S. citizen, relocated to Spain. Ana Knezevich’s best friend Sanna Rameau told “True Crime News” that she planned to visit Knezevich in Madrid, and the two discussed the details. Rameau said Ana Knezevich told her she was “feeling great and looking forward to my visit” when they spoke on the phone.

    On Feb. 3, Rameau received a text from Ana Knezevich but said the messages were “strange” because it didn’t sound like Knezevich’s voice or behavior. The message read, “I met someone wonderful!! He has a summer house about 2h from Madrid. We are going there now and I will spend a few days there. Signal is spotty. I’ll call you when I get back.”

    She wrote in a follow-up text, “Yesterday after therapy I needed a walk and he approached me on the street! Amazing connection. Like I never had before.”

    Rameau told “True Crime News,” “Nothing made sense of it, because she wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t meet a stranger on the street and go to some other place with this person.”

    Rameau flew to Madrid and asked David Knezevich to meet her and help her look for her friend.

    According to Knezevich’s criminal complaint, Knezevich allegedly matched with a Colombian woman on a dating app in October 2023, and on Feb. 3, he allegedly messaged her on WhatsApp and asked her to translate a message in “perfect Colombian.” He claimed it was for a “friend in Serbia who is writing a script about a Colombian character.”

    Knezevich reportedly purchased a plane ticket from Serbia to Colombia on Feb. 16 but never boarded the flight scheduled for Feb. 19. The woman from the app reportedly Googled Knezevich’s name and found out Ana Knezevich was missing in Madrid. She also read a news article “that contained a message purportedly from Knezevich’s wife that matched the exact wording of the text she and Knezevich had put together on or about Feb. 3, 2024.”

    Investigators learned Knezevich flew from Miami to Istanbul, Turkey, on Jan. 27, then drove to Belgrade, Serbia, on Jan. 30. He was recorded returning to Serbia on Feb. 5. 

    Officials believe Knezevich drove 1,600 miles from Belgrade to Madrid and was spotted leaving his wife’s apartment with a suitcase. Knezevich brought the car back to the rental location with 7,677 kilometers (about 4,770 miles) on it, a new license plate, and tinted windows. The new plates were reportedly reported stolen out of Spain and tracked to the same street as Ana Knezevich’s apartment.

    According to the complaint, on April 24, Knezevich allegedly asked one of his employees to impersonate Ana Knezevich so he could open a new bank account in his name. The employee reportedly told him she felt “uncomfortable impersonating the Victim because the Victim was missing.” Knezevich, however, allegedly told her it was “not serious” and she needed to do it in order for the employees to get paid.

    Officials in Spain and Italy continue to search for Ana Knezevich.

    For more information about the case, watch the video above. Be sure to stay up to date on this case and others by watching “True Crime News” every weekday.

    MORE:

    • Fort Lauderdale man indicted for kidnapping in connection with wife’s disappearance, 5/24/2024 – U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida
    • David Knezevich criminal complaint
    • Feds charge Fort Lauderdale man with killing and kidnapping his wife in Madrid – Miami Herald

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  • Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Rebranding of West Point’s DEI Office

    (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for information regarding the rebranding of West Point’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office to “Office of Engagement and Retention” (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:24-cv-02941)).

    The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the United States Military Academy at West Point (a component of the Defense Department) failed to respond to an August 28, 2024, FOIA request for:

    1. All documents related to the renaming of and/or elimination of West Point’s “Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity” (ODIEO).
    2. All documents related to the creation of West Point’s “Office of Engagement and Retention.”
    3. All emails related to the matters addressed in Bullets 1 and 2 sent to and from the following USMA officials: Superintendent LTG Steve Gilland, Dean BG Shane Reeves, Commandant BG R.J. Garcia, and Chief Diversity Officer Lisa Benitez.

    Reporting in August 2024 detailed the name change:

    The West Point Office of “Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity” is now called the “Office of Engagement and Retention”…. On the West Point page, there’s not much change beyond the title …

    “It seems games are afoot at West Point to disguise its radical DEI agenda,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

    Recently, Judicial Watch sued on behalf of Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (STARRS) against the U.S. Department of Defense for records regarding the U.S. Air Force Academy’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plans.

    In June 2024, Judicial Watch sued the Defense Department for records regarding the deletion of the words “Duty, Honor, Country” from the United States Military Academy at West Point’s mission statement.

    In March 2023, records obtained by Judicial Watch from the Department of Defense showed the Air Force Academy has made race and gender instruction a top priority in the training of cadets. 

    In July 2023, Judicial Watch exposed records from the United States Air Force Academy that included instructional materials and emails that address topics such as Critical Race Theory, “white privilege,” and Black Lives Matter. 

    In July 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Defense for  records related to the United States Naval Academy (USNA) implementing Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the training of naval recruits.

    In June 2022, Judicial Watch received records revealing Critical Race Theory instruction at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point One training slide contains a graphic titled “MODERN-DAY SLAVERY IN THE USA.” [Emphasis in original]. 

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  • Delphi teens' murderer convicted; Babysitter on trial in infant’s overdose death – TCN Sidebar

    In this episode of True Crime News The Sidebar Podcast: Dave Aronberg joins host Joshua Ritter to break down the biggest cases making headlines across the nation. They discuss Richard Allen’s conviction for the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, a babysitter on trial for allegedly giving an infant a lethal dose of Benadryl to make her go to sleep, and a judge denying Diddy’s gag order request as the rap mogul makes another attempt at gaining bond.

    YouTube: Delphi teens’ murderer convicted; Babysitter on trial in infant’s overdose death – TCN Sidebar



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  • Judicial Watch Sues for Records on $27M Grants to ‘Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees’ for Use in Gaza

    (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for records about to the $27 million in U.S. grants awarded to “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees” that have been designated for use in Gaza (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Agency for International Development (No. 1:24-cv-02159)).

    On April 2, 2024, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request with the USAID for:

    1. All records identifying the recipients of USAID funding under the $7,000,000 grant allocation awarded on or about November 15, 2023, and associated with Federal Award Identification Number 720BHA24GR00005.
    2. 2. All proposals, applications, scope of work documents, or similar records related to any grant award or sub-award associated with Federal Award Identification Number 720BHA24GR00005.

    Recently USAID produced records in this case but is refusing to disclose what organizations received the money. Judicial Watch is challenging that withholding.

    On October 7, 2023, Hamas—a U.S.-designated terrorist organization—invaded southwest Israel, killing over a thousand people and kidnapping hundreds of others.

    On November 15, 2023, the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, a component of the USAID, issued a $7 million grant for “multisectoral response in Gaza.” The grant was awarded to “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees.” The same day a “continuation” grant of $20 million was also issued for “multisectoral response.”

    “The involvement of employees of a U.S. backed multinational organization in the October 7 attack on Israel underscores the importance of transparency in who receives U.S. taxpayer dollars and how they are spent,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This is critical to protecting the national security of the U.S. and Israel.”

    USAID reports that over $282 million was obligated to the West Bank and Gaza in fiscal year 2023.

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  • Up and coming model killed in drive-by shooting; Cops convicted in woman’s kidnapping | Full Episode

    In this episode of True Crime News: Kaylyn Pryor was fatally shot while walking to catch the bus after visiting her grandparents. Despite ongoing investigations, the mystery of who killed Kaylyn still lingers, leaving her father searching for answers. Plus, what started as a normal day became a nightmare for single mom and waitress Erinn Orcutt when police officer Anthony Orban kidnapped her at gunpoint and assaulted her. Despite the attack, Erinn survived, and two law enforcement officials were convicted as a result.

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  • West Point effort to hide DEI campaign called out

    From Washington Examiner:

    West Point’s move to rename and “disguise” its controversial diversity program was hit with a lawsuit Wednesday. The military’s larger DEI campaign is coming under fire now that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a Defense secretary who wants to end the efforts.

    Continuing a long campaign to call out and halt so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the military, Judicial Watch sued for details about West Point’s shift.

    The Army officers college in New York this summer rebranded its Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity office to “Office of Engagement and Retention.”

    When compared, there is little other change in the programs other than the shift to a less transparent name, according to Judicial Watch.

    “It seems games are afoot at West Point to disguise its radical DEI agenda,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.

    Read more here…

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  • La. woman sentenced for killing her boyfriend in 1984 and taking over his business

    JEFFERSON PARISH, La. (TCN) — A 60-year-old woman recently pleaded guilty to killing her live-in-boyfriend, who disappeared two years before his remains were found in a well.

    The Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office announced Nov. 13 that a judge sentenced Patricia Tito to life in prison without the possibility of parole for second-degree murder in connection with the death of her boyfriend, 57-year-old Lester Rome. A jury indicted her in December 2023.

    According to prosecutors, Rome, who owned a lounge on Grand Isle, was last seen on Jan. 9, 1984. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said his family members reported him missing to the Grand Isle Police Department.

    Tito was reportedly a teenager at the time and ran the lounge while Rome was missing. The district attorney’s office said Tito continued to live in the victim’s residence and drive his vehicle. Rome’s brother later evicted Tito.

    According to prosecutors, Tito told other people she drove Rome to the airport for a trip, and she was the last person to see him. Tito allegedly said to another individual that Rome gave her the lounge and left the state.

    The district attorney’s office said authorities identified Tito as a suspect in the missing person case, but they suspended the investigation because they couldn’t find Rome’s remains. Two years later, investigators reportedly found Rome’s body in a well on farmland. Deputies said he became known as “the Man in the Well,” and investigators determined he died of blunt force trauma and possible stab wounds. Rome wasn’t positively identified until 2021.

    In 2021, the Sabine County Sheriff’s Office worked on the case. Tito was serving a 40-year prison sentence at the time after pleading guilty in 2007 to manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a woman.

    Tito reportedly told investigators Rome had been killed by another man, Delvin Sibley, in Jefferson Parish over a drug debt. His remains were moved to the well on a property formerly owned by Sibley’s family. In 2022, Tito eventually told authorities she and Rome teamed up for a business relationship. He allegedly “made sexual advances toward her,” dismantling their business relationship. Tito said Rome was slain shortly after.

    According to the Jefferson Parish sheriff’s office, “Tito obviously had knowledge of Mr. Rome’s death and failed to make any effort to notify law enforcement or a member of his family between 1984 and 2021.”

    MORE:

    • Patricia Tito pleads guilty, gets life in prison for Grand Isle murder – Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office

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  • Shady Dem lawyer behind Steele Dossier looking to overturn Pennsylvania Senate results

    From New York Post:

    “Elias is part of Kamala Harris’ campaign’s legal apparatus,” said Tom Fitton, president of the nonprofit advocacy group Judicial Watch. “One of the big lies of the left is that they support democracy, but what they support is using the law to obtain and retain power for themselves and that’s what Marc Elias is about.”

    McCormick spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory called Elias a “grifter” who was pursuing “frivolous legal challenges with zero merit.”

    Read more here…

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