Mystery disappearance of US road-tripper grips nation

American authorities have launched a massive search for a 22-year-old woman who mysteriously vanished during a road trip with her boyfriend, now declared a "person of interest" in a case gripping the nation.

Gabrielle "Gabby" Petito quit her job and packed her life into a camper van for the cross-country adventure with Brian Laundrie, 23, documenting their journey in a stream of idyllic-seeming Instagram posts.

But, more 2 weeks ago, Laundrie returned to his home in North Port, Florida alone in Petito's van. Ten days later, her family filed a missing person report.

Laundrie has declined to cooperate with police.

"We share the frustration with the world right now," North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison told reporters on Thursday. 

"Two people went on a trip, one person returned and that person that returned isn't providing us any information."

Garrison said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was helping with the investigation.

The couple embarked on their journey across the US in July, leaving from New York on the east coast, and posting photos of magnificent views of the American West and themselves smiling happily next to their small white van.

In one YouTube video published during their trip, Petito and Laundrie are shown kissing tenderly, enjoying a sunset together and strolling on a beach.

- Arguments and tears -

However, in August, police in Utah responded to a domestic violence report involving Petito and Laundrie. 

Police bodycam footage published by US media showed a distraught Petito saying she had had an altercation with Laundrie.

Speaking to a police officer after their van was pulled over, Petito was seen crying and saying she struggles with mental health problems.

Petito said she slapped Laundrie after an argument, but added that she meant no harm.

"We've just been fighting this morning, some personal issues," she said.

"He wouldn't let me in the car before... he told me I needed to calm down." 

Laundrie told police that Petito tried to get the van keys from him and he pushed her before she hit him with her phone.

The police officer decided no charges would be brought but ordered the couple to spend a night apart to calm down.

Petito last communicated with her parents in late August when the couple were in the area of the Grand Teton national park in Wyoming, the family said.

Joe Petito, Gabby Petito's father, appealed for anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact the authorities, adding that an anonymous tip line has been set up. 

"I am asking for help from everyone here, I am asking for help from everyone at home," Joe Petito said at a press conference on Thursday.

"I am asking for help from the parents of Brian and I am asking help from the family and friends of the Laundrie family as well."

"There is nothing else that matters to me now."

Gabrielle Petito's mother and stepfather issued a statement saying they were "going through the worst moments of their lives."

"Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help," the statement said.

Petito's mother and stepfather "implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area."

Social media on Thursday were flooded with photos of Petito and calls to help find her.

Agence France-Presse  

South Koreans among 7 missing in Himalayan avalanche

KATHMANDU, Nepal - Four South Koreans and three Nepalis are missing and about 200 people have been rescued after an avalanche hit trekkers on the Annapurna region in the Himalayas, officials said Saturday.

South Korea was to send an emergency team to Nepal to help in a desperate search operation.

The incident occurred at an altitude of about 3,230 meters (10,600 feet) close to Annapurna base camp following heavy snowfall on Friday.

Six of the missing are from one trekking expedition while one Nepali porter is from a different group.

"A search operation is underway for the seven out of contact," Mira Acharya of Nepal's tourism department told AFP.

About 200 people have been rescued from the avalanche-hit zone as well as other trekking routes after the weather eased to let helicopters fly in.

The four were part of an 11-member team from South Korea. Others from the team are safe.

Ang Dorjee Sherpa of the Korean Alpine Federation said it had been snowing in the area since the last two days, making their trek risky.

"The weather and snow got worse and, feeling it was becoming dangerous and difficult, they decided to turn. As they were heading back they were hit by an avalanche," Sherpa said.

Annapurna is an avalanche-prone and technically difficult mountain with a higher death rate than Everest, the world's highest peak.

Kim Sung-hwa, a South Korean trekker in Kathmandu after a trek in the Langtang region in eastern Nepal said he had to cut his trip short after abnormally heavy snow.

"Winter is a dry season (in Nepal) and you don't (normally) see a lot of snow. But due to abnormal weather conditions... even here, when we went to Langtang, there was a heavy snow and rain," Kim said.

"I heard the news this morning and as a trekker and a fellow (South Korean) citizen who like and love Nepal, I feel heart-stricken."

Education officials in South Korea said the four South Koreans were part of a team of volunteer teachers working with children in Nepal.

South Korea's foreign ministry said an emergency team would be sent to Nepal and that the families of those missing had been informed. The volunteers were from Chungcheong province.

Thousands of trekkers visit the Annapurna region every year for its stunning views of the Himalayas.

In 2014, a snowstorm killed about 40 people on the popular circuit, in one of the biggest trekking tragedies to hit Nepal.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Number of missing in California fire jumps past 600

PARADISE, California - The number of people listed as missing in one of California's deadliest wildfires has skyrocketed past 600, authorities said Thursday, as the remains of seven additional victims were found by rescuers.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said the number of missing had more than doubled during the day to 631 as investigators went back and checked emergency calls made when the fire broke out a week ago.

"I want you to understand that the chaos we were dealing with was extraordinary" when the fire started, he told journalists, in explaining the staggering new number.

The seven additional victims brings to 63 the number of people who have died in the so-called Camp Fire in northern California.

At least three other people have died in southern California in another blaze dubbed the Woolsey Fire.

President Donald Trump is set to visit California on Saturday to meet with victims of the wildfires believed to be the worst in the state's history.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Family seeks help in search for missing Pinay

The family of a missing Filipina is seeking the public’s help in searching for their daughter who has been missing for a week now in Hawaii.

Melissa Estoy, 21, was last seen leaving her Waianaeh home last January 16.

Family and friends later located her vehicle at Zablan Beach in Nanakuli on January 18. They said it was suspicious because her keys were still in the ignition with all the windows down.

Authorities said that Estoy could have gone into the waters and have asked the fire department to help in the search.

Estoy is described as 5’2” tall, 120 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact crime stoppers at 955 8300.

Read more on Balitang America

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Helicopter missing in Papua New Guinea after distress call

SYDNEY—A helicopter which sent out a distress signal in poor weather was feared to have crashed Saturday in Papua New Guinea's rugged highlands, with two Australians and a New Zealander on board.

Hevilift, a Singapore-based air charter company catering to mining and energy operators, said the Bell 206 went missing on Friday afternoon in the mountainous Southern Highlands region with two pilots and an engineer on board.

The chopper had issued a mayday call five minutes after taking off from an InterOil drill rig in conditions of low cloud and reduced visibility.

"Aircraft in the vicinity heard the distress call from the helicopter," Hevilift said. "A localised search using Hevilift helicopters... commenced immediately, but deteriorating weather meant the helicopters were unable to search for long before the weather and last light closed down the search."

Efforts resumed at first light but Hevilift said the helicopter was yet to be found, and no rescue beacon signals had been detected from the "thickly forested" region where it was believed to have gone down.

Seven helicopters were involved in Saturday's hunt along with a Dornier 328 fixed-wing airplane dispatched from Australia which was specially equipped to pick up electronic signals.

PNG and Australian military aircraft, as well as commercial helicopters and aircraft from other local companies like Exxon Mobil PNG, helped with the search. Hevilift said weather conditions were "favourable".

PNG aviation officials said the helicopter was thought to have gone down at Kikori, a densely wooded and oil-rich settlement at the head of the Gulf of Papua, but they were yet to find the wreckage and could not confirm fatalities.

"It was coming in from InterOil, one of the sites, into (Mount) Hagen and halfway through Hagen it actually went down," aviation authority spokesman Yaqub Amaki told ABC Radio of the missing aircraft. "At the moment we don't know the status of the three."

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Taylor, PNG advisor to the New Zealand Defence Force, said the search would be difficult due to the rugged terrain, which he likened to "a jungle version of the Southern Alps".

"To the best of my knowledge there's been no word received from the crash site that would indicate survivors," Taylor told the APNZ news service.

Taylor said there were a large number of aircraft in the area transporting ballot boxes, papers and officials for the ongoing national elections and "some of those will be able to be used for searching for the wreckage."

Australia's foreign office said it was "aware of reports of a helicopter that went missing in Papua New Guinea with two Australians onboard on the afternoon of 6 July".

"We understand the third person is a New Zealand national," a foreign office spokeswoman told AFP.

Australia's high commission in Port Moresby was liaising with Hevilift and the families of the missing, she added.

Aviation accidents are common in Papua New Guinea, where rugged terrain and lack of internal connecting roads make air travel crucial for its six million citizens and the growing numbers of oil, gas and mining workers.

More than 20 planes have crashed in PNG since 2000 including a fiery Airlines PNG accident which killed 28 people in October, when a Bombardier Dash 8 ploughed into a dense forest in poor weather.

The impoverished South Pacific nation has only had an air accident commission since 2008, established in response to claims that corruption and a lack of funding had led to a sharp decline in safety standards.

source: interaksyon.com

AP source: Man says he suffocated Patz

NEW YORK – A law enforcement official said Thursday that a man has told police that he suffocated Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy whose disappearance on his way to school in 1979 helped give rise to the missing-children's movement that put youngsters' faces on milk cartons.

Pedro Hernandez was picked up late Wednesday in New Jersey, according to a law enforcement official, and was being questioned Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Hernandez worked at convenience store in the neighborhood where Patz lived, and moved to New Jersey shortly after the boy disappeared 33 years ago, according to a second law enforcement official. He has been tied to the case in the past, and investigators recently received a phone call that tipped them off to him, the officials said.

Hernandez said he suffocated the boy, then put the body in a box, walked down the street and left the box in an alley, the first official said. No body or box has been recovered, and Hernandez has not been charged.

Investigators said they were still trying to confirm details of the man's story. The development came just before the Friday anniversary of Etan's disappearance, when detectives typically receive a landslide of hoaxes and false leads.

"Let me caution you that there's still a lot of investigating to do," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Hernandez's emergence as a person of interest was not related to the search of a Manhattan basement in April, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The excavation of the basement yielded no obvious human remains, authorities said.

Both the person familiar with the probe and the officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the case.

A woman who answered the door at Hernandez's Maple Shade, N.J., home confirmed he was in custody. Neighbors said he lived with a woman and a daughter who attends college.

"I can't believe something like that," said Dan Wollick, 71, who rents the other apartment in home. "This guy, he doesn't seem that way."

Wearing a backpack with elephants printed on it, Etan, a boy with sandy brown hair and a toothy grin, vanished on May 25, 1979, while walking alone to his school bus stop for the first time, two blocks from his home in New York's busy SoHo neighborhood.

Police conducted an exhaustive search amid a crush of media attention. Thousands of fliers were plastered around the city, buildings canvassed, hundreds of people interviewed.

SoHo was not a neighborhood of swank boutiques and galleries as now, but of working-class New Yorkers rattled by the news.

Etan's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads and a lack of hard evidence.

They did not return a message requesting comment.

"I hope this is the end of it," said Roz Radd, who lives a couple of blocks from the Patz family's home and knows Etan's mother casually from walking dogs in the neighborhood. "There's going to be hopefully closure to her, to know what happened to her son."

The investigation has ebbed and flowed over the years. It also ushered in an era of anxiety about leaving children unsupervised.

In the past, the focus was on Jose Ramos, a convicted child molester, now in prison in Pennsylvania. He had been dating Etan's baby sitter at the time the boy disappeared. In 2000, authorities dug up Ramos' former basement in Manhattan, but nothing turned up.

Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been charged criminally and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found him to be responsible for Etan's death after Ramos failed to respond to the family's lawsuit.

Recently, investigators questioned a 75-year-old Brooklyn handyman who in 1979 had a workspace in the basement that was excavated last month. The man, Othniel Miller, was not named as a suspect and denied any involvement.

Miller's lawyer said there was no connection between Miller and Hernandez.

"There has been no law enforcement action taken or implicated against Mr. Miller as of yet. Mr. Miller is relieved by these developments, as he was not involved in any way with Etan Patz's disappearance," attorney Michael Farkas said.

source: foxnews.com