Missing boy found safe after four days
Compiled from Times wiresPublished May 31, 2006
CANON CITY, Colo. - An 8-year-old boy who wandered from his campsite over the weekend was found Tuesday after searchers investigated a report of a crying child in a remote canyon.
"He's alive and well," said Zack Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison and a spokesman for the operation.
Evan Thompson was found roughly 4½ miles from where he had been camping with family friends and a teacher, and was being evacuated to a hospital.
He wandered away from the campsite Saturday morning.
Nearly 100 rescuers and three aircraft searched for the boy in rugged country about 90 miles south of Denver.
The boy, who has attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, had been without his medication for several days, Gray said.
Louisiana housing plan gets federal approval
NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana's plan to use federal money for repairs, reconstruction and buyouts of hurricane-damaged property has been approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, department Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced Tuesday.
The "Road Home" plan pushed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco still needs congressional approval of $4.2-billion, money that is included in a spending bill for hurricane recovery, war costs and other items that is now before a conference committee.
The "Road Home" plan would provide grants of up to $150,000 per homeowner, based on the prestorm value of the home. Only homeowners with uninsured damages of more than $5,200 from hurricanes Katrina or Rita would be eligible - an estimated 123,000 people.
Carbon monoxide kills four boaters
OROFINO, Idaho - Carbon monoxide built up in a motorboat, killing all four occupants after they pulled a cover over the boat to shield themselves from a storm.
Authorities think the boaters died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.
A marine deputy found the boat in Dworshak Reservoir while on patrol Monday morning. The boaters could have died as early as 11 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
The Sheriff's Office identified the victims as Jeffery R. Meredith, 36, Natalie A. Meredith, 34, their 12-year-old son Jonathan Smith, and Kyle D. Hayes, 12, all of Dayton, Wash.
Police destroy DNA samples from BTK case
WICHITA, Kan. - Police on Tuesday incinerated more than 1,300 DNA samples taken to eliminate possible suspects in the BTK serial killer investigation, inviting the media to watch the event.
Dennis Rader, who called himself BTK for his preferred method to "bind, torture and kill" his victims, pleaded guilty last June to killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991. He was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.
Most of the 1,326 samples were taken voluntarily, but some were taken under court order. Some possible suspects had worried that the samples could end up in crime databases, despite police assurances that they would not.
A judge ordered their destruction.