MISSING 38 WEEK PREGNANT WOMAN FOUND DEAD | CRIME ALERT RECAP SATURDAY 11. 29.25

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Here's some of our top stories this week:

A body matching the description of Rebecca Kay Park is discovered on Tuesday. Rebecca, 22, had not been seen since just before midnight of Nov. 3, and a massive search effort had been underway to locate her, because she was 38 weeks pregnant at the time she went missing. Officials decline to say if the remains of a newborn were also discovered or if the victim was or had been pregnant 

Federal investigations into John Wilson Bennett and Mark Booth Bennett began on November 17, following an off-duty police officer in Norfolk, Virginia, who reportedly heard them planning to "kill police officers and ICE agents.”

A Utah father now sits in jail without bail after prosecutors charged him with child torture and abuse tied to a dangerous mountain hike that nearly killed his three children. 

The LAPD says Celeste Rivas body was not frozen when found in frunk of Tesla registered to D4VD. LAPD Captain and commanding officer of Robbery Homicide Division, Scot Williams, says "the whole frozen thing doesn't make sense, her body was in the car for weeks." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime a Lord hourly update Breaking crime News Now, I'm
Dave Mack. A body matching the description of a Michigan
pregnant missing woman, Rebecca K. Park was discovered Tuesday, November
twenty fifth, and shortly after her fiance and younger sister
are arrested. Rebecca twenty two, has not been seen since
just before midnight November three, and a massive search effort

(00:22):
has been underway to locate her, with family members appearing
on local news programs to spread the word. There was
an added sense of urgency to the search efforts because
Rebecca was thirty eight weeks pregnant at the time she
went missing. Rebecca's phone has been found near her mother's house.
Her body is found in Manistee National Forest, Michigan State
Police saying. Officials declined to say if the remains of

(00:43):
a newborn are also discovered, or if the victim was
or had been pregnant. Park was due to give birth
November eighteen. Among the very vocal family members asking for
help locating Rebecca have been her fiance, Richard Faller, and
her younger sister, Kimberly Valor suggest in an interview with
WWTV the day Rebecca vanishes. An unknown person picks her

(01:05):
up from her mother's home and takes her away in
a car. Shortly after the discovery of the body, Fowler,
forty three, is booked into custody at the Wexford County
Jail around seven thirty pm, according to custody records obtained
by People. A few hours later, shortly after midnight on Wednesday,
November twenty sixth, Kimberly Park, twenty one, is also booked
into the same jail. The reasons for the arrest have

(01:27):
not been disclosed, and it is not clear whether they
relate to Rebecca Park's case. There are no charges listed
for either Fowler or Kimberly at this time. Dwickford County
Sheriff's Office declined to comment further offending an autopsy.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm nicole Parton. Authorities alleged that a Virginia assistant principal
and his brother were recently overheard discussing plans to harm
immigration officers, though their legal representatives dispute the validity of
these claims. Federal investigations into John Wilson Bennett and Mark
Mark Booth Bennett began on November seventeen, following an off

(02:04):
duty police officer in Norfolk, Virginia, who reportedly heard them
planning to quote kill police officers and ICE agents, according
to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. Allegedly,
Mark Bennett also expressed intentions to meet with quote like
minded people in Las Vegas to purchase firearms, including ammunition

(02:26):
designed for explosive impact, to execute their plans. On November nineteen,
Mark Bennett was arrested at Norfolk International Airport, where he
was preparing to travel to Las Vegas, with a layover
in Charlotte, North Carolina. His brother, John, who serves as
the assistant principal at Kempsville High School, was arrested the
same day in Virginia Beach. It is alarming that someone,

(02:49):
especially an educator, would consider plotting to kill and attack
law enforcement officers and ICE agents discussing how to acquire
high caliber rifle capable of penetrating bullet proof vests, remarked
Assistant Secretary Trisha mcglothin with DHS. Both brothers are facing
charges of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding. It remains unclear

(03:13):
whether they have entered a plea. Their defense team has
contended that the conversations were hearsay and that both brothers
do not pose a threat to the community, as reported
by the Associated Press, Their attorneys also claim that Mark
was traveling to Vegas to attend a Formula one race,
not to acquire weapons. The brothers have been placed under

(03:36):
house arrest until their pre trial.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
I'm Drew Nelson, a Utah father sits in jail without
bail after prosecutors charge him with child torture and abuse
tied to a dangerous mountain hike that nearly killed as
three children. Micah Smith was charged in Salt Lake County
with three counts of child torture and three counts of
aggravated child abuse, all first degree felonies. He's being held
without bail to rescue folks.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
For them, this hike was a hard hike. This is
not an easy height. This is a one that even
has strained and professional today suffered injury trying to respond
to it.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
District Attorney sim Gill adds that as conditions worsened, the
eight year old was taught CPR.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Hard to say for her brother and also to continue
to go through that experience where she communicated fear and
concern and they were told to march.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
On The case began October eleventh, a hike in Big
Cottonwood Canyon. Smith took his three children onto the Broad's
Fork trail. The children ages two, four, and eight. Investigators
said Smith did not check the weather. The indictment says
the group climbed thousands of feet up the mountain a
storm moved in snow, hail, and rain. Family members reported

(04:47):
them missing when they did not return. Search and rescue
teams were sent into the canyon on October twelfth. Cruise
later found Smith on the trail. Rescuers said he was
acting oddly. They said he told them one of his
children had died. The two younger children had fallen and
suffered head trauma. One had stopped breathing. When rescuers reached
the children, they were beside a boulder with a few

(05:08):
sticks stacked to block the wind. The children were not
wearing much clothing. The two year old was under the
four year old. The four year old was unconscious and
appeared lifeless. First responders could not detect a pulse. Cruise
performed about twenty minutes of CPR, rushing him to the hospital.
Doctors recorded his body temperature at sixty two point six

(05:28):
degrees He later suffered a stroke. Part of his skull
had to be removed, and a drain was surgically inserted.
The four year old remains hospitalized. The eight year old
told investigators clouds moved in fast. She said the storm
worsened throughout the night. Video from Smith's phone captured one
child asking quote, are we going to freeze to death?

(05:49):
Investigators also reviewed messages Smith exchanged with his wife. She
urged him to get the children down before dark. At
one point, she texted him the words child in danger.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Men.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Smith still continued upward, charging document state. Smith later admitted
he did not check trail or weather reports. He said
the family tried to hike down around six pm, but
only made it about six hundred feet before stopping to
shelter beneath the rock. Prosecutors also revealed prior police contact
with him. About one month before the hike, Smith expressed

(06:21):
suicidal thoughts to an officer and said he wanted to
climb a mountain. Officers found two guns and an axe
in his vehicle. Smith denied he planned to hurt himself.
On November tenth, weeks after the rescue, Smith was thrown
out of the hospital.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
The defendant was trespassed from Primary Children's Hospital for interfering
with one of his child's care and tapering.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Without equipment, referring to the four year old boy. After
that incident, he was arrested for domestic violence. Details of
that case have not been made public.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
D A.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Gilsays the children are now receiving proper medical care. Child
Protective Services is involved. The investigation remains active as Smith
awaits further court proceedings.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
In Salt Lake County, the revs. Hernandez case has taken
another turn, forcing police to finally provide some new information
to a case that has been creating headlines for months,
with LAPD remaining mostly silent. The story began when the
body of missing teen Celesterevas Hernandez was found decomposing in

(07:20):
the front of an abandoned Tesla registered to Singer D
four VD David real name David Anthony Burke in September.
Since the discovery of the body, the LAPD has remained
relatively silent, while leagues from the investigation appear regularly on
TMZ dot com and local news outlets. Recent reports from
an anonymous source tied closely to the investigation claims the

(07:44):
body was frozen and decapitate. Found That leaked information causes
LAPD Captain and commanding Officer of Robbery Homicide Division, Scott
Williams to provide an update, saying Celest's body was not
frozen and she was not dec capitated, going so far
as to say, quote, the whole frozen thing doesn't make sense.

(08:05):
Her body was in the car for weeks unquote. While
the LAPD remains tight lived about the case, what is
known is that the timeline regarding the Tesla containing the
body of Celeste was last moved on July twenty ninth.
The vehicle was tagged by police and later towed to
impound on September fifth. On September eighth, police are called

(08:26):
to the impound lot due to a horrible smell coming
from the tesla, and the remains of Celest are found.
Celeste remains are discovered one day after her fifteenth birthday,
leading some news outlets to identify her as being fifteen
years old. Captain Williams corrects this by saying she was
only fourteen when she died. Celeste Revas Hernandez was reported

(08:48):
missing by her parents and like elsono Or, California, on
April five, twenty twenty four, when she was just thirteen,
Even though there's clear video of it and showing Celeste
at her parents' home in September of twenty two, twenty four,
the status of her case was not changed and she
was still considered a missing person when her remains were found.
The autopsy report for Celeste was listed as deferred while

(09:11):
awaiting toxicology and additional tests, but now LAPD Detective Joshua
Buyers refers to the case as an ongoing investigation of
murder and releasing the medical examiner's findings could endanger the
lives of witnesses and or compromise the investigation. Buyer says
making the document's public will reveal or tend to reveal

(09:34):
the ongoing investigation and the integrity of the investigation, as
well as the identity of witnesses and or informants who
are cooperating with law enforcement and the content of the
information they have provided, which could endanger the lives of
witnesses and or compromise the investigation. Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Craig Richmond ordered that all documents related to the

(09:56):
court order be sealed until further order of this Court
or a competent court having jurisdiction over the matter. David
Anthony Burke has been identified as a suspect and Celette's death.
For the latest crime and justice news, follow the Crime
Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast app with this
crime Alert, I'm Dave Matt