Convicted Georgia Sex Offender Dead After Kidnapping Tennessee Girl, Ramming Police

Edward Aherns

A convicted sex offender from Georgia is dead after an encounter with Tennessee authorities during which he rammed several police cars, several sources have confirmed. 

Edward Ahrens was suspected of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl who was the subject of a Tennessee Endangered Child Alert, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). The missing child was identified as Aubriauna Mays. 

Read the full story

Texas, U.S. Officials Warn Americans Not to Travel to Mexico as Cartel Violence Escalates

The U.S. State Department and Texas Department of Public Safety have warned Americans not to travel to Mexico because of escalating cartel violence. While some news reports have suggested the warnings were for spring break, the warnings have been issued since at least last August and remain indefinite.

They’ve also been issued after more than 550 Americans have been reported and remain missing in Mexico.

Read the full story

Whitmer Kidnapping Trial Advances in Michigan

More than two years after the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was foiled, criminal cases against alleged perpetrators are still working their way through the court system.

The Antrim County County Circuit Court has approved two motions from the state in the trial of five alleged co-conspirators charged with providing material support in the plot to kidnap Whitmer. Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer approved the motions on Wednesday, which asked that the cases be joined for trial and that the court allow the admission of co-conspirator statements.

Read the full story

Soft-on-Crime Shelby County DA Says Fletcher Murder ‘Isolated Attack’

Despite reports that the suspect in the Eliza Fletcher’s kidnapping and murder has now been charged with a separate abduction and rape in 2021, Shelby County District Attorney, who ran his campaign on criminal justice reform, says the Fletcher incident was an “isolated attack.”

Cleotha Abston Thursday was charged separately with aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful carrying of a weapon stemming from an event that allegedly occurred in 2021, though details were not immediately available.

Read the full story

Gang Blamed for Kidnapping 17 American Missionaries in Haiti

Missionaries of Charity in Haiti

A gang known for previous abductions has been blamed for the kidnapping of 17 American missionaries in Haiti on Saturday, NBC News reported.

The Christian Aid Ministries missionaries were kidnapped on their way from the construction of an orphanage, according to a message from Ohio-based ministry, NBC reported.

“This is a special prayer alert,” the ministry’s one-minute message said. “Pray that the gang members would come to repentance.”

The U.S. Embassy is working with the field director of the mission, whose family stayed at the ministry’s base with an unidentified man while the abduction took place, the message said.

Read the full story

FBI Arrests Couple Allegedly Involved in Cross-Border Kidnapping Ring of Americans

An American woman and her boyfriend were arrested and charged for allegedly collecting ransom money as part of their involvement in a deadly kidnapping conspiracy of U.S. residents in Tijuana, Mexico.

Leslie Briana Matla, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen who lived in Mexico, and her boyfriend, Juan Carlos Montoya Sanchez, a 25-year-old resident of Tijuana, were arrested by U.S. authorities pursuant to money-laundering conspiracy charges, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Read the full story