High school soccer coach caught human trafficking

Police have arrested a Sacramento high school soccer coach on charges he forced two teenage girls into prostitution. Elan Seagraves, 34, was taken into custody in the early morning on Christmas Day.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department says the arrest occurred after a 17-year-old girl called 911 to report she had been the victim of sexual assault and human trafficking.
Deputies soon responded to an address where the girl said she was hiding in a backyard. The girl told deputies that the man who allegedly sexually assaulted her and forced her into prostitution was waiting for her in a car nearby.
That's where deputies say they found Seagraves with a different underage teen, who he is also accused of trafficking.
Seagraves was arrested and is facing charges of human trafficking of a minor.
Seagraves worked as a boys soccer coach at Sacramento's John F. Kennedy High School and various other local youth leagues. He also works as a Uber and Lyft driver.
Seagraves is being held at Sacramento County Jail on $2 million bail.

New Year Eve murders

A teenager is accused of killing his parents, sister and a family friend inside his parents' home on New Year's Eve, officials said Monday.The teenager, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, is in custody and is being held on four counts of murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said. Because of the seriousness of the offense, the youth could be prosecuted as an adult, but no decision on that had been made Monday.
Police found the suspect's father, Steven Kologi, 44; mother, Linda Kologi, 42; sister, Brittany Kologi, 18; and family acquaintance, Mary Schultz, 70, minutes after a 911 call reporting shots fired. All died at the scene.
The boy's grandfather and brother were able to escape the house unharmed, Gramiccioni said.

Wife/mother takes a walk and isn't seen for over 10 years

Mike and Joan Renee Cook had a tumultuous marriage.
"They were never happy," Joan's sister Carol Huffman Byer told Dateline. "It was more of a comfort thing for both of them."
The couple lived in Salem, Virginia with their young daughter, Ashlyn. But in 2007, Mike moved to Des Moines, Iowa to find a job, with plans for Joan and Ashlyn to join him once he was settled.
Meanwhile, though, Joan was also settling down, herself. She'd gotten a new job - and a new man. According to Carol, just three months after moving to Des Moines, Mike found out about Joan's new relationship and moved back to Salem.
Carol told Dateline that's when Mike and Joan's rocky relationship took a turn for the worse. She says Mike started stalking Joan and her new boyfriend.
"Mike had done a couple of things," Carol said. "He'd sit outside their work and wait to watch them come out. She says one weekend she saw him putting nails behind her tires.
"I confronted him on it and he said, 'It was just a stupid thing I did'," Carol said. She added, however, that, to her knowledge, her brother-in-law never made specific threats or showed violence.
By the end of 2009, Carol says Joan was living with her new boyfriend.
"Which wasn't right - she knew our feelings on it," Carol told Dateline. "She eventually wanted to get a divorce from Mike, but she couldn't afford it at the time."
Joan's new boyfriend had a daughter, and had visitation with her every other weekend; on those weekends, Joan would stay with Mike and Ashlyn at the family home where they still lived.
On January 24, 2010, during one of those weekend stays, everything changed. Carol says it was cold that night and raining -- certainly not ideal weather for a late-night walk around the neighborhood to see a friend.
Carol says Mike told her that the evening Joan left had been a completely normal night.
The Roanoke County Police Department did not respond to Dateline's request for comment by publication time, but they said that Joan left her home around 11 o'clock that night. Authorities say their last trace of the 44-year-old was a text from her phone to the friend she was allegedly going to see the night she vanished. The text was sent around 5:00 a.m. on January 25 - just six hours after she was last seen - and simply read: "I love you."
Carol found out about Joan's disappearance when Joan's work called a few days later and said her sister hadn't shown up for a couple of shifts.
"I was not able to get in touch with her," Carol told Dateline. "I talked to her husband and he said the last time he'd seen her was on the night of the 24th when she had set off on foot for her friend's house."
Carol said Mike told her he hadn't reported Joan missing yet, because he figured she was still around somewhere - she had been living with her new boyfriend, so Mike wouldn't see her every day anyway.
The Roanoke County Police said Mike then reported Joan missing, and the investigation began.
"The police department used cadaver dogs in the front and back yard [of their home]," Carol told Dateline. "There was no blood evidence anywhere. Just - poof! She was gone."
Carol told Dateline the police ruled out Joan's new boyfriend as a suspect, because he was out of town with his daughter that weekend.
Carol said Mike has told police he and his wife weren't arguing the night Joan vanished, and in Ashlyn's interview with authorities, the then-7-year-old told police she didn't hear anything loud or out of the ordinary in the house that night. Carol, though, believes Mike knows more than he's saying.
"I truly think something happened between the two of them," Carol told Dateline. And as the last person to have seen Joan, "he is the only one who knows anything."
Police also believe someone close to the family knows what happened. While nobody has been charged in connection with Joan's disappearance, now retired Roanoke County Police Department Commander David McMillan told WSLS in 2015 that he was optimistic about her case being solved.
"With witnesses time usually helps us, because they have time to think about it -- to learn more and then make decisions to come forward," Commander McMillan told WSLS.
Carol said Joan's daughter Ashlyn lived with her for a few months following Joan's disappearance, but she and her dad Mike have since moved back to Des Moines, Iowa.
"[My family has] a slight relationship with Mike, only because of Ashlyn," Carol told Dateline. "We can talk on the phone."
Joan's disappearance has caused pain for many of her family members.
"The ordeal caused my mother to have a mental breakdown. It's been rough on her," Carol said. "And our dad passed away about a year and a few months ago, so we'd like to have her home -- to put her beside him."

Stylist goes to jail over haircut

A bad haircut — and a wounded ear — led to a Wisconsin hairstylist's arrest, authorities said.
Khaled A. Shabani, 46, was arrested after he snipped a 22-year-old customer’s ear, Madison police said.
Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said officers arrested Shabani on suspicion of mayhem and disorderly conduct while armed.
DeSpain said the victim told officers the hairstylist told him to stop fidgeting and moving his head before nicking his ear Friday.
According to The Wisconsin State Journal, DeSpain said the hairstylist then ran the clipper with the shortest attachment down the middle of the customer’s head, “leaving him looking a bit like Larry from ‘The Three Stooges.’”
DeSpain said Shabani told officers it was an accident.

Cop blackmailing wife who wants to murder him

A Pennsylvania police officer has pleaded guilty to a plot to blackmail his wife over having sex with a 14-year-old boy while she has pleaded guilty to plotting to kill her husband.

Keith Transue, a Bushkill Township officer, pleaded guil ty last week to misdemeanor criminal coercion, and Robin Transue pleaded guilty to felony solicitation to commit aggravated assault and statutory sexual assault. The Mount Pocono residents, both 43, are scheduled for sentencing March 20.
Authorities in Monroe County said in court documents that Robin Transue told an informant her husband threatened to expose her 2010 relationship with the boy if she left him. Prosecutors say she suggested several ways to kill her husband, including a drug overdose or a hunting accident.
"Mrs. Transue freely talked about arranging for her husband's murder," District Attorney Michael Mancuso said. "All kinds of potential death scenarios were discussed."
Prosecutors said Keith Transue failed to report the abuse when he learned about it, as he was legally obligated to do as a police officer.
"Transue was using his wife's crime to keep her from leaving or divorcing him. This in turn was essentially the motive for Robin soliciting Keith's murder," Mancuso said.
The police department placed Keith Transue on leave after the charges were filed, and Police Chief Mike McLouth said Wednesday said the officer had submitted a resignation letter.
Mancuso praised an informant who came forward and cooperated with police, saying he "likely prevented a homicide and also brought to light a sordid history of sexual assault and criminal coercion."

Engagement ends in murder

A 27-year-old Florida man murdered his girlfriend on Tuesday before committing suicide with the same gun.
The crime reportedly shocked the man’s parents, who say he was in good spirits just 30 minutes before neighbors heard two gunshots.
PEOPLE confirms with the Riviera Beach Police that investigators believe that Richard Travis Timilty shot Holly Given, 26, inside the apartment they shared. Their bodies we re discovered Wednesday afternoon.
Neighbors reported hearing “two pops” at around midnight on Tuesday evening.
According to police, there are no recorded of domestic abuse calls from the couple. Their investigation into the deadly incident remains ongoing.
A motive for the violence remains unknown.
The Palm Beach Postspoke to Timilty’s parents; PEOPLE was unable to track them down Friday.
Timilty’s parents said he referred to Given as “the one” and told them he was planning on proposing to her.
His parents also said Timilty was recently promoted, becoming a fishing boat captain.
They said that when they picked him up from a restaurant where he’d gone to meet up with friends, he appeared to be in good spirits.
“He was smiling,” Martinez told the paper. “He was happy.”
Given was a waitress, according to multiple media outlets.
She announced her relationship with Timilty on her Facebook on Oct. 20.
Court records confirm that Timilty filed for divorce from another woman on that very same day.
His divorce, from a woman he was married to for less than a year, was finalized on Nov. 29, PEOPLE confirms through online court records.
The day after his marriage ended, Timilty shared a picture of himself and Given on Instagram, calling her “my love.”

4 found dead in 1 house

Four people found slain inside a basement apartment the day after Christmas have been identified as two children, their mother and a second woman, authorities said Wednesday.
The victims were a 36-year-old woman, her 5-year-old daughter, her 11-year-old son and a 22-year-old woman who had a relationship with the mother, Troy police Chief John Tedesco said.
A property manager found the bodies Tuesday after being asked to check on the welfare of the residents of the apartment, one of five in a house located in the city's Lansingburgh section along the Hudson River just north of Albany, police said.
The slayings weren't a random act, Tedesco said during a news conference at City Hall. He called the killings the worst he has seen in 42 years in law enforcement but didn't provide details.
"I don't think there's any doubt that a person who committed this crime is capable of anything," Tedesco said, adding that police don't believe there was an imminent danger to the public.
The victims' names were being withheld pending notification of relatives, he said.
Police didn't know when the slayings occurred, but Tedesco said it was hoped autopsies being conducted Wednesday would provide investigators with clues. State police were involved in the investigation along with New York parole officials, Tedesco said.
"This will be a full-court press, if you will, until we bring someone to justice," he said, adding that police were seeking any information the public may have about the crime.
Investigators remained at the scene Wednesday. Police cars blocked vehicles from approaching the home, which is set amid older, restored houses, and yellow crime tape was stretched across the street, running along the river's east bank. Few people ventured out on the snow-covered sidewalks in temperatures in the teens.