Utah cabin burglar ends long run in wilderness 

  

 

  Troy James Knapp was dodging authorities, again.

The fugitive with a fondness for whiskey and a dislike of living near people had been wanted for a string of break-ins for years at cabins in Utah's mountains. With each near miss, each wanted poster and each threatening note left behind for law enforcement, the legend of him only grew.
Knapp survived by holing up inside the cabins, sleeping in the owners' beds, eating their food and listening to their AM radio for updates on the manhunt. And then, authorities say, he would take off, stealing items such as guns and high-end camping equipment and vanishing into the woods where he lived off dandelions and wild game.
Over Easter weekend, authorities were on his trail, again.
By Tuesday, his life on the lam came to an end, done in by an educated guess by searchers who had grown to know his tendencies, the tracks he left with his snowshoes and the sounds of him chopping wood outside a cabin near a mountain reservoir.
A team of 14 officers approached him on snowshoes — the only way to quietly sneak up on him — and called in reinforcements to help corner the bearded and camouflage-clad fugitive, a trim 45-year-old standing 5-foot-8.

Now in police custody, Knapp is telling authorities how he managed to evade them for so long across a mountainous region stretching for 180 miles. "He really has a fascinating story to tell, and right now he's willing to tell it," Sanpete County Sheriff Brian Nielson said.

Knapp, born in Saginaw, Mich., got into trouble with the law early. As a teenager, he was convicted of breaking and entering, passing bad checks and unlawful flight from authorities, according to court records. His most serious offense, an arrest for felony assault in Michigan, was reduced in 1994 to a charge of malicious destruction of property after he agreed to plead guilty.

"He says, 'I don't hate people. I just don't like living with them,'" Sevier County Sheriff Nathan Sheriff Curtis said.

With no known occupation, Knapp drifted across the country and ended up in prison in California for burglary. He fell off the radar in 2004 when he "went on the run" while on parole, said Bobby Haase, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
By 2007, Utah authorities began investigating a string of cabin burglaries they believed were tied to one person. It wasn't until early 2012 that they identified Knapp as the suspect from cabin surveillance photos and fingerprints lifted from one cabin. In one photo, he was wearing camouflage, a rifle was slung over his shoulder and he had purple-colored aluminum snowshoes on his feet. Knapp appears to have aged considerably from a 2001 California mug shot.
Tracy Glover, chief deputy sheriff in Kane County, said it was fairly easy to identify Knapp's cabin habits. Knapp would drink any coffee and alcohol he could find, authorities say. Unlike typical burglars, he never took large or expensive appliances such as TVs or stereos. He took only what he could carry, mostly camping gear and weapons he stashed in abundance in the woods. He returned to burglarize cabins more than once, even swapping one stolen rifle for another, officials said.
A few years ago, investigators found an abandoned camp they linked to Knapp. It had a doomsday supply of dehydrated foods, radios, batteries, high-end camping gear, 19 guns and a copy of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," a book about a young man who died after wandering into the Alaskan wilderness to live alone off the land.
It was in Kane County, near Zion National Park, where authorities lifted Knapp's fingerprints from items in a cabin. The prints matched sets in criminal databases, giving law enforcement confidence that he was their guy.
Knapp is believed to have left that area in early 2012. He started to make his way north from Kane into Sevier, Sanpete and Emery counties, where he was occasionally spotted by hunters. Knapp has told detectives he was feeling stressed trying to hide from hunters last fall, said Brian Nielson, the sheriff in Sanpete County.
Court records from multiple Utah counties indicate Knapp regularly spent several days in snowbound cabins, exhausting the food and firewood before moving on. Authorities say the signature clue of his presence was an empty bottle of whiskey. In summer, he retreated to makeshift camps deep in the backcountry.
He sometimes tidied up a cabin, but other times left it a mess or riddled with bullets, authorities say. He was known to deface religious icons. He scrawled notes for cabin owners, alternatively thanking them or demanding they "get off my mountain." He also warned sheriffs he was "gonna put you in the ground!"
Even authorities have found something to admire in Knapp's knack for survival and evasion. He stepped on saplings to avoid leaving discernible boot tracks and changed stolen footwear often to confuse searchers. He walked alongside trails instead of on them and kept mostly to backcountry.
He used some of those tactics in his final flight, which started more than a dozen miles away from his capture site. At Joe's Valley in the Manti-LaSal National Forest, deputies found boot prints around two burglarized cabins. The tracks led in no apparent direction, Emery County sheriff's Cpt. Jeff Thomas said.
Deputies copied his silent mode of travel on snowshoes over three days and nights as they tried to track Knapp across rugged terrain, first losing his size-10 shoe prints, then regaining his tracks on snowshoe as he ventured higher on the 10,000-foot Wasatch Plateau.
"They stayed quiet and built no fires — and they were very cold," Thomas said.
To get this far, deputies had to think like Knapp. He moved often and swiftly across the backcountry, covering 20 miles in a day "and that was nothing for him," Curtis said.
They had to imagine where Knapp might have taken off. They guessed it was a collection of cabins a dozen miles away at a high-altitude reservoir. They believe Knapp had visited there before. Along the way, they picked up his snowshoe tracks.
With 13 cabins at the reservoir, "we didn't know exactly where he was," U.S. Forest Service officer Scott Watson said. "We couldn't just go knocking on doors."
By 10 a.m. Tuesday, 40 officers took positions around the 9,000-foot reservoir. Knapp fired off a handful of shots at a helicopter that flushed him out of a cabin. He tried to escape into the woods, but ran into three armed officers. He laid down his rifle and surrendered.
The last three nights Knapp spent as a fugitive were in a framed log cabin with a commanding view of forest roads leading to Ferron Reservoir. Owner Eugene Bartholomew said "it was kind of messed up" and "stunk like crazy." It wasn't his only discovery. On television news, Bartholomew took his first look at Knapp.
"That son-of-a-bitch has got my coat on," he said.

Deadliest submarine disaster in US remembered 

 

Family and friends who lost loved ones when the USS Thresher sank 50 years ago joined in tossing wreaths into the water Saturday in an emotional service in remembrance of the 129 Navy crew members and civilian technicians who lost their lives in the deadliest submarine disaster in U.S. history.

Hundreds gathered for the memorial service at Portsmouth High School that concluded with a small group tossing three wreaths into the Piscataqua River. During the service, a bell tolled 129 times.

The event, along with the dedication of a flagpole Sunday in Kittery, Maine, aims to call attention to the tragedy 220 miles off Cape Cod, which became the impetus for submarine safety improvements.

Vice Adm. Michael Connor, commander of the Navy's submarine forces, acknowledged Saturday that the safety upgrades came at a steep cost to Thresher families.

"I've talked a lot about the good that comes from the Thresher and the Thresher's loss, but that's probably not a consolation to the families who've lost a father or a son," Connor told a packed high school auditorium.

The USS Thresher, built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and based in Connecticut, was out for a routine deep-diving test when it ran into trouble on April 10, 1963.

The Navy believes the failure of a brazed weld allowed sea water to spray onto an electrical panel, causing an emergency shutdown of the sub's nuclear reactor. The ballast system also failed, preventing the sub from surfacing.
Filling with water, Thresher descended deeper and disintegrated under the crushing force of the ocean. Its remnants rest on the ocean floor at a depth of 8,500 feet.

Don Wise Jr., 59, of Plaistow, N.H., who lost his dad, said the Thresher crew members were doing something special, serving on what was a technological marvel, the Navy's fastest and deepest-diving nuclear submarine.

"They were going deeper and faster than anyone. I always considered my dad a hero and an adventurer," Wise said Saturday. "These memorials are how I connect my children and grandchildren with my dad."
Former Thresher crew member Frank DeStefano, 79, of Orange Park, Fla., said he owed his life to a three-day assignment to Washington that took him away from the submarine during the fateful sea trials.
He said he's happy to see that annual memorial events provide an outlet for families and friends to grieve.
"The only good part about these memorials is that we can help those who were really affected, like the families," DeStefano said. "And it's great to see the children that have come along."
Lynne Lawrence, of Alexandria, Va., whose father, Richard DesJardins, was one of the civilian technicians who died, attended the service with two siblings.
In a recent interview, she described her father as a fun-loving, busy engineer, and said she was sad he didn't get to see his children become adults or meet his grandchildren.
"It's a profound loss that affects you forever, but you grow from it and move on," she said. "Because you don't really have any other choice."
After the ceremony, a rifle team fired shots as the wreaths — one each for Navy personnel and civilian technicians who died, and one for previous Thresher crew members — were tossed into the river.

Church: Pastor Rick Warren's son commits suicide 

 

The 27-year-old son of popular evangelical Pastor Rick Warren has committed suicide at his Southern California home, Warren's church and authorities said on Saturday.

Matthew Warren struggled with mental illness, deep depression and suicidal thoughts throughout his life, Saddleback Valley Community Church said in a statement. His body was found in his Mission Viejo home Friday night, said Allison O'Neal, a supervising deputy coroner for Orange County. She declined to release the cause and manner of death pending an autopsy of the young man.

"Despite the best health care available, this was an illness that was never fully controlled and the emotional pain resulted in his decision to take his life," the church statement said.
Rick Warren, the author of the multimillion-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life," said in an email to church staff that he and his wife had enjoyed a fun Friday evening with their son. But their son then returned home to take his life in "a momentary wave of despair."
Over the years, Matthew Warren had been treated by America's best doctors, had received counseling and medication and been the recipient of numerous prayers from others, his father said.
"I'll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said 'Dad, I know I'm going to heaven. Why can't I just die and end this pain?'" Warren recalled.
Despite that, he said, his son lived for another decade, during which he often reached out to help others.
"You who watched Matthew grow up knew he was an incredibly kind, gentle, and compassionate man," Warren wrote. "He had a brilliant intellect and a gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room. He'd then make a bee-line to that person to engage and encourage them."

The elder Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980, according to his biography on the church website, and over the years watched it grow to 20,000 members. He and his wife, Kay, began by holding Bible studies for people who weren't regular churchgoers.

Matthew Warren was the youngest of their three children.
As Saddleback grew over the years, it spread out from its Lake Forest headquarters, 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles, adding several other campuses and ministries around Southern California.
The church says it now offers more than 200 community ministries and support groups for parents, families, children, couples, prisoners, addicts, and people living with HIV, depression and other illnesses.

In 2008, the church sponsored a presidential forum with Barack Obama and John McCain. Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney were invited to a similar forum last fall, but Warren canceled it several days beforehand, saying the campaign had become too uncivil.

Warren was named the top newsmaker of the year for 2009 by the Religion Newswriters Association. He gained attention that year with his invocation at Obama's inauguration, as well as with comments he made in the aftermath of California's Proposition 8, which overturned gay marriage.

New iPhone Might Come This Summer, Report Says

  

It's that time again, the time of the year when rumors of the next iPhone start to swirl. The first set of reports comes from The Wall Street Journal, which writes that Apple is set to begin production on the next iPhone this quarter (or spring). The new phone, which is "similar in size and shape to the its current one," could be on track for a summer launch, the report says.

Apple is also working on a "less expensive" iPhone that might be launched in the second half of the year, according to the same report. The cheaper phone is said to have the same size 4-inch screen as the iPhone 5, but a different casing that could come in a number of colors.

Apple has been rumored to have been working on an affordable version of its iPhone for a number of months now. Apple declined to comment on its plans when reached by ABC News.
Apple CEO Tim Cook addressed the idea of a cheaper iPhone while speaking at the Goldman Sachs conference in February.

"When you look at what we've done for people who are more price sensitive, we've lowered the price of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and in the December quarter, we didn't have enough supply of iPhone 4 after we cut the price," Cook said. "It surprised us, as to the level of demand we had for it."

The iPhone 5 was released in September 2012 along with iOS 6, the latest version of Apple's software for its phone and iPad. Samsung recently announced its Galaxy S4, the leading Android smartphone competitor to the iPhone 5. Apple responded to the launch with a new online marketing campaign on why people love their iPhone 5. Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller also criticized Android in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn't as good as an iPhone," Schiller said.
Many expect the next version of the iPhone to be called the iPhone 5S, following the naming structure Apple has historically used for its phones. Apple is expected to hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June; it has typically previewed the next version of its iOS software at that event and announced some new products.

US, French tourists kidnapped, 1 raped in Rio

US woman, French man kidnapped, 1 raped inside public transport van in Rio 

 

A night out on the town turned into a nightmare after an American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was handcuffed, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks, police said.

The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has won kudos for its crackdown on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city also will be playing host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.

Three men aged 20 to 22 have been taken into custody in connection to the crime, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight Saturday, police said. The suspects have been accused of at least one similar attack, with a young Brazilian woman having come forward to say that she too was raped by the same men in the van on March 23, police said.

"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant told the Globo TV network. "Just how they described the facts was shocking — the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things."

The attack drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus in which six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus. That attack touched off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.
On Tuesday, Brazilian police were quick to emphasize to reporters the rarity of Saturday's attack.

"These type of crimes committed against foreign tourists are very uncommon," said Alexandre Braga, the police officer leading the investigation.

Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about how the attack might affect their security precautions.
Braga said the two foreigners, who were in Brazil as students, took a public transport van similar to those often used as a faster alternative to the city's bus fleet. The pair were heading from Rio's Copacabana beach neighborhood to the nightlife hot spot of Lapa in downtown Rio.
A few minutes into the ride, the suspects forced the other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the moving vehicle, Braga said. The woman was also beaten across the face, and the man was handcuffed and beaten, at one point with a metal crowbar.
The three suspects took turns behind the wheel, driving the van to Rio's sister city of Niteroi where they went on a spending spree with the foreigners' credit cards.
Once they hit the limit on both cards, spending around $500 at gas stations and convenience stores, the suspects drove the pair back to Rio, where the foreigners were staying, and forced the woman to fetch another credit card, Braga said.
Although she was alone, she didn't call the police or alert anyone, Braga said, "because the young man was still under the suspects' control and she feared something even worse might happen to him."
The two were ultimately dumped by the side of a highway near the city of Itaborai, some 50 kilometers from Rio. After they managed to make it to an unidentified country's consulate, officials took the two to the special police delegation that specializes in crimes against foreigners. The young woman has returned to the U.S., while the man remains in Rio to help with the investigations, Braga said.
"The victims recognized the three without a shadow of a doubt," Braga said.
The Brazilian woman who said she had also been raped by the suspects last month recognized media images of the alleged attackers and contacted police. Another foreigner has said she'd been robbed by one of the three suspects, police said.
Investigators are reviewing police databases to determine whether the three might have been involved in other crimes.
Two of the suspects have confessed to Saturday's attack, while the third denies any responsibility, Braga said.
"They do not show any repentance," he said. "They are quite indifferent, cold."
The suspects rented the van, which seats about a dozen people and has dark tinted windows, from the vehicle's owner, who police say is not suspected of any involvement in the crime. Though they apparently had authorization to transport passengers in Niteroi and neighboring Sao Goncalo, the suspects were not allowed to operate the van in Rio, Braga said.
"It appears they worked in transportation and sometimes engaged in crimes," said Braga.
Many in Rio know of such van services for their precarious safety conditions and reckless driving, as well as their links to organized crime. Some vans are linked to militias largely composed of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine transportation and other services. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.
Foreigners are more often the targets of muggings and petty crime in Rio, with assaults a particular problem on public transit. Last year, a woman was raped on a moving bus in broad daylight in a widely publicized case, and the Rio subway has special women-only cars to help prevent such attacks.
More than 5,300 cases of sexual assault were reported in Brazil between January and June 2012, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Louisville's Kevin Ware resting after surgery on broken leg

  Louisville guard Kevin Ware was up and walking on crutches Monday morning, and coach Rick Pitino said his player's spirits have been boosted by the outpouring of support from friends and fans.

Ware isn't in any pain after a 2-hour surgery Sunday night to repair a horrifying fracture in his right leg. Doctors reset the bone and inserted a rod, and are monitoring him to make sure there's no infection, Pitino said.
"He's doing terrific, in great spirits," Pitino, who visited Ware on Sunday night and again Monday morning, said on a conference call. "He'll be with us in Atlanta."
Ware broke his leg in the first half of Sunday's Midwest Regional final when he landed awkwardly after trying to contest a 3-point shot, breaking his leg in two places. He was taken off the court on a stretcher as his stunned teammates openly wept. Before he left, Ware urged his teammates to "just win the game," and all said afterward there was no way they could have let him down. The Cardinals beat Duke 85-63 to reach their second straight Final Four.
"That was the first time he just broke down and cried, when he heard the players talking about him," Pitino said. "Now he's in very good spirits and anxious to get out of the hospital and get back with the guys."
They're anxious to have him back, too. He has the regional championship trophy, which Pitino brought him Sunday night.
"I said, `All right, just make sure you don't lose it,"' Pitino said.
Ware's girlfriend stayed at the hospital overnight, and Pitino said Ware's mother arrived Monday morning.
As long as there are no complications, Pitino said Ware should return to Louisville on Tuesday. The Cardinals travel to Atlanta on Wednesday night, and Pitino said they expect to have Ware with them.
"As you know, Kevin is from Atlanta," Pitino said. "He gets to go home, be with his family and be with us on the bench."
Ware has played a key role in the Cardinals' second straight Final Four run, scoring 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting in 25 minutes in the regional semifinal win over Oregon, and on Sunday he was the primary motivator. Before leaving the court, he called his teammates over to prod them to win the game and not worry about him, a message he continued to express at halftime. And he was eager to return to Atlanta, where he played high school basketball.
For television viewers, it was a gruesome sight that prompted many to express their sentiments on social media sites. CBS even stopped showing the replay, which was not seen inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
For Louisville players and coaches, it was far worse. Guard Russ Smith said he didn't see the play but he heard the bone snap. And forward Chane Behanan, Ware's closest friend, said the sight was almost unimaginable.
Pitino, one of college basketball's top winners, thought he had seen just about everything in the sport until Ware's injury.
"I went over and I was going to help him up and then all of a sudden, I saw what it was and I almost literally threw up," Pitino said.
Ware's teammates were overcome with emotion, too.
Luke Hancock patted Ware on the chest after Ware rolled himself to the sideline and right in front of the Louisville bench. Behanan and several other players sat on the floor as Ware was treated and some, including Behanan, cried. Duke guard Tyler Thornton covered his eyes when he realized what had happened, and Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski even told Pitino that he would agree to let the teams warm up again if they wanted
 
They didn't, though Pitino did summon Ware's teammates so he could speak to them. His message was simple: Win the game.
"I said, `We're going to dig in. We're going to play this game to the end. We're going to play this game to get him back home,"' Pitino said, explaining his halftime speech. "We'll get him back home, nurse him to good health and we're going to get him to Atlanta."
Louisville trainer Fred Hina told Pitino it was the same injury that derailed the Heisman Trophy hopes of running back Michael Bush, who also played at Louisville. Bush recovered from the injury and has had a productive NFL career with Oakland and Chicago.
As it turned out, he was watching.
"I just cried," he wrote on Twitter. "I feel so bad. Flashback of myself. Anyone if he needs anything please let me know."
The reaction was the same everywhere.
Louisville forward Wayne Blackshear fell to the floor, crying, and Behanan looked as if he was going to be sick on the court, kneeling on his hands and feet. Peyton Siva sat a few feet away, a hand covering his mouth.
Someone finally pulled Behanan to his feet, but he doubled over and needed a few seconds to gather himself.
Condolences poured in on social media, too. Former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, who famously sustained a broken leg on Monday Night Football in a game against the New York Giants, tweeted that "Watching Duke/ Louisville my heart goes out to Kevin Ware." Pitino said Theismann had called Ware to wish him well.
Two doctors speculated Ware might have had stress fractures that predisposed him to such a break.
Dr. Reed Estes, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and team physician for the UAB football team, said basketball players are prone to stress fractures in the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the lower leg, and that can weaken them.
"If these are not detected they can result in a full fracture, particularly if the landing mechanics are just right" after a jump, Estes said. Surgery to stabilize the bones is usually successful, and Ware should be fine to play next season, he said.
Dr. Frederick Azar, head of the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., and a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, said Ware "jumped pretty far horizontally and vertically, and he landed with a twist," which puts so much torsion and stress on the bones they could have just snapped. He agreed with Estes' assessment that a stress fracture could have made Ware more prone to such an injury.
Louisville, the top overall seed in the tourney, missed four of its next five shots after the injury but regained its composure to take a 35-32 halftime lead and went on to an 85-63 victory.
"We won this for him," Pitino said. "We were all choked up with emotion for him. We'll get him back to normal. We've got great doctors, great trainers. We talked about it every timeout, `Get Kevin home."'

Man accused of smuggling more than 10 percent of an entire species 

 

 A man was arrested at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok after authorities say they discovered he was attempting to claim a piece of luggage full of extremely rare tortoises.

Traffic.org, a self-described wildlife trade monitoring network, reports that the man is accused of trying to pick up 54 ploughshare tortoises. "The wild population of Ploughshare Tortoises, considered among the rarest species in the world, is estimated to be as few as 400 individuals, and is declining fast," according to the site. As Popular Science points out, the man is accused of attempting to smuggle more than 10 percent of the entire species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has classified the ploughshares tortoise as critically endangered.
The piece of luggage had been registered to a woman who was arrested as well, according to reports. In addition to the 54 ploughshare tortoises, 21 radiated tortoises, also endangered, were being smuggled, authorities say. They believe the tortoises were going to be sold as pets.