← Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Authorities in Utah plan to exhume remains as investigators reopen a cold case dating back to 1970 | Crime Alert 6AM 02.24.26
00:06:26
Loading summary
Transcript4 lines
- [00:01]
A
CRIME alert. I'm John Laemmle. We begin this hour with a compelling development out of Hurricane Idaho, where authorities have taken the rare step of reopening a cold case that has puzzled investigators for more than half a century. Police with the Washington County Sheriff's Office say they are preparing to exhume human remains buried in a local cemetery, remains belonging to an unidentified woman discovered in 1970 and long known only as Jan Doe. At the time of her discovery, the woman's cause of death was ruled undetermined, and she was laid to rest with a simple marker identifying her as an unknown. The case was investigated sporadically over the years, including a 2014 attempt to recover her DNA, but that effort ultimately failed when no remains were found during excavation. Now detectives have petitioned a judge for a new warrant and are moving forward with plans to exhume the burials site again, this time with modern forensic science on their side. Advances in DNA technology and access to national missing person databases give investigators renewed hope that Jane Doe can finally be identified. Records indicate that prior excavation efforts may not have gone deep enough to reach the actual burial site, leading authorities to believe the remains may still be intact beneath the surface. With assistance from the National Cold Case Coalition, law enforcement hopes to collect viable DNA samples that could provide closure for surviving relatives whose loved ones disappeared decades ago. The sheriff's office says the exhumation will take place in the coming weeks, marking a significant moment in one of the longest running cold cases in Utah's history.
- [01:57]
B
Thanks, John. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com and please join us for our daily podcast Crime Stories. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Laemmle.
- [02:15]
A
In Rhode island, officials released new video and audio recordings from the day of the Brown University campus shooting that left two students dead and nine others wounded in December. The footage, heavily redacted to shield victims and their families from further trauma, includes about 20 minutes of body worn, camera video from responding officers and radio traffic between campus police and municipal authorities. The suspect in that attack, identified previously as Claudio Neves Valenti, a former graduate student at the university, is also believed to have fatally shot an MIT professor, Nuno Larreo days after the campus attack. Valenti was later found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire. Providence city officials say portions of the recordings were withheld to avoid showing more graphic content. But the material release sheds light on the chaotic police response, including moments when officers mistook a maintenance worker for a potential suspect Providence Mayor Brett Smiley noted the difficult balance between transparency and protecting those affected by the tragedy, which occurred during a final exam period on campus. Authorities continue to urge anyone with additional video or information from the day of the incident to come forward. In one of New Jersey's most harrowing cases in years, a Monmouth county jury has convicted a man of killing his brother and four members of his brother's family, then setting fire to their homes in what prosecutors described as an effort to cover up the crime. 59 year old Paul Canero was found guilty this week on multiple counts, including four counts of murder, aggravated arson and weapons charges, for the deaths of his brother Keith Canaro, Keith's wife Jennifer, and the couple's two children, ages 8 and 11. Prosecutors told jurors that the killings took place Nov. 20, 2018, and were driven by a dispute over business finances. After killing his relatives inside their Colt's Neck, New Jersey mansion, Canaro ignited fires at both the family's estate and his own home in Ocean Township, seemingly to mislead investigators into thinking the deaths were victims of an arson related tragedy. His defense appealed to jurors to consider alternate suspects, including a third brother they said may have had a motive. But after roughly five hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts. Kineiro faces a potential life sentence when he is formally sentenced in May. Finally, in Washington, D.C. newly released federal records are clarifying the government's investigation into the late financier Jefferson Jeffrey Epstein. According to internal Justice Department documents, the FBI found no credible evidence that Epstein maintained a client list or operated a sex trafficking ring involving powerful or prominent men. Investigators say reviews of financial records, seized materials and witness interviews did not support claims of an organized trafficking operation. The files reaffirm that Epstein committed serious federal sex crimes, but prosecuted concluded there was insufficient admissible evidence to charge other individuals. Allegations of third party involvement could not be independently corroborated. The documents also state investigators never recovered a secret client list during searches conducted before or after Epstein's 2019 death in federal custody.
- [06:08]
B
Thanks, John. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com and please join us for our daily podcast Crime Stories, where we we do our best to find missing people, especially children, and solve unsolved homicides with this crime alert. I'm Nancy Grace.