2025.3.11 Mother accused of killing newborn in Easley, no bond set
EASLEY, S.C. – A woman is behind bars, accused of killing her baby as she delivered the child on March 7.
According to the Easley Police Department, An T. Ngo showed up to her bond hearing straight from the hospital.
The judge at Ngo’s hearing could not set bond, due to the charge of homicide by child abuse carrying a life sentence.
Easley Police Chief Brandon Liner said officers were called to Nations Way near Powdersville Road on Friday night.
“The reason they responded was because it was an EMS call for service,” Chief Liner said. “They get on scene and realize very quickly. This is something much more.”
According to warrants released by the police department, Ngo is accused of repeatedly stabbing her baby with a long metal letter opener while and after giving birth to him, cutting the umbilical cord, putting him in a black trash bag and moving him to another room in the apartment.
Reports also said that Ngo confirmed her actions to police as she was read her rights.
“It was very apparent that Ms. Ngo is the one who tragically murdered this child and it is at that time we went ahead and applied for a warrant for a homicide by child abuse,” Chief Liner explained.
Chief Liner said this case is unlike anything he has experienced in 25 years.
“I’ve been doing this for two-and-a-half decades and I’ve never seen anything this gruesome, anything this bad,” said Liner.
Liner said the investigation into the infant’s death is still in its early stages, but that his team will make an effort to hold those responsible accountable.
“We are fully committed to uncovering the truth of this incident, holding the responsible accountable and ensuring justice is found for this child.”
Officials said that a bond for Ngo should be set by the circuit court judge in the next 30 to 45 days.
2025.3.11 Missing American college student seen on resort surveillance in Dominican Republic
Sudiksha Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student from Virginia, disappeared in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – A 20-year-old college student was last captured on surveillance footage gallivanting with friends during their spring break trip at a resort in the Dominican Republic before she mysteriously vanished.
Sudiksha Konanki, a junior pre-med student at the University of Pittsburgh, was last seen on surveillance camera with five other people entering the beach at the Riu República Hotel in Punta Cana after 4:15 a.m. Thursday, the Dominican National Police said in a statement.
Surveillance video, obtained by Noticias SIN, captured the group striding towards the beach at the five-star resort.
The footage is the last time authorities tracked Konanki before the Virginia resident disappeared.
Konanki’s disappearance has sparked widespread speculation about the events leading up to it, prompting law enforcement in both the Dominican Republic and the U.S. to investigate.
Konanki was seen for the last time at 4:15 a.m. walking on the beach outside the RIU Republica Resort on March 6, according to the Dominican National Police.
The footage captured Konanki accompanied by two men and three women. The 20-year-old was seen clinging to a blonde man, whom authorities identified as a “male friend.”
Authorities said that the male friend who was with Konanki around the time of her disappearance is under investigation.
It is unclear who the “young man” is, but police said he was in the water at the same beach, and they are questioning him in an attempt to corroborate his version of events, according to a translation of a Spanish-language statement.
Authorities have not named any suspects amid their ongoing investigation. In a release on Tuesday, the Dominican National Police said that they are “re-interviewing targeted individuals who were in the victim’s proximity at the time of her disappearance.”
“This includes hotel employees where Konanki and her companions were staying, with the goal of gathering information to corroborate her movements, interactions, and any relevant details for the investigation,” they said.
When asked about a Monday report that Konanki may have drowned, a spokesperson for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital authorities “have heard this and have seen no evidence presented at this time.”
A joint investigation into Konanki’s disappearance is being conducted by the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican National Police and the Dominican Prosecutors Office. The FBI is also assisting.
2025.3.11 Texas appeals court blocks scheduled execution of David Leonard Wood
EL PASO, Texas (EL PASO MATTERS) — Texas’ highest criminal court on Tuesday blocked Thursday’s scheduled execution of David Leonard Wood, the man sentenced to die for the 1987 deaths of six girls and young women whose bodies were buried in the Northeast El Paso desert.
The unsigned order was issued per curiam by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, meaning it was done in agreement with a majority of the nine judges. Judges Mary Lou Keel and Gina Parker disagreed with the decision. Judge Bert Richardson – who has handled Wood’s appeals at the trial court level since 2011 – didn’t participate in the decision.
The judges outlined the issues raised in the latest appeal, but didn’t list reasons for their ruling. “The stay will remain in place until further order of this Court,” the ruling said.
The order was issued less than 48 hours before Wood was to be executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville. It was the second time the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had stepped in to block Wood’s execution days before he was to be put to death.
“I don’t know why they keep doing this. It’s like they’re playing a game,” said Marcia Fulton, a Northeast El Paso resident whose 15-year-old daughter, Desiree Wheatley, was among those killed in 1987.
Wood’s attorney, Gregory Wiercioch, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Wood, now 67, was indicted on a capital murder charge in 1990, three years after nine girls and young women were reported missing in and around Northeast El Paso. From September 1987 through March 1988, the remains of six of the missing girls and young women were found in shallow graves in the Northeast desert, where Painted Dunes Golf Course is now located.
Wood was accused of killing the six women whose remains were found: Ivy Susana Williams, 23; Desiree Wheatley, 15; Karen Baker, 20; Angelica Frausto, 17; Dawn Marie Smith, 14; and Rosa Maria Casio, 24.
No sign of the other three missing women and girls – Marjorie Knox, 14; Melissa Alaniz, 13; and Cheryl Lynn Vasquez Dismukes, 19 – has ever been found. No one has been charged in their disappearances.
The discovery of multiple shallow graves in the Northeast desert sparked a wave of fear in El Paso. It was El Paso’s deadliest crime spree until 2019, when a gunman killed 23 people and wounded 22 others in a racist mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart.
Wood’s trial was moved to Dallas in 1992 because of extensive pretrial publicity in El Paso. A jury found him guilty of capital murder in November that year, determining he killed Williams and at least one of the five other victims. The jury sentenced Wood to death four days after convicting him.
He always maintained his innocence, through the trial and decades of appeals.
Wood faced an execution date in 2009, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution a day before it was set to happen to allow Wood’s lawyers to pursue a claim that he had an intellectual disability that barred the death sentence.
But that appeals and a series of requests for DNA testing of evidence were turned down by the courts over the years. Wood’s defense lawyers were critical of the state for objecting to DNA testing, especially after one of three tested blood samples in 2010 excluded Wood as the source of the blood.
Prosecutors and the courts said the one blood sample would not have altered the jury’s decision in 1992, and further tests weren’t allowed.
Wood’s attorneys made multiple last-ditch appeals in state and federal courts in recent days to stop the execution.
He had an extensive history of sex crimes before being charged with the 1987 killings.
In 1976, when he was 19, Wood was sentenced to five years in prison for indecency with a child. He was paroled in 1978.
In 1980, when he was 23, Wood was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping a 19-year-old woman and 13-year-old girl over an eight-day span. He was paroled just over six years later, in January 1987, and returned to Northeast El Paso.
Wood also was found guilty of the 1987 kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman who survived the attack. His lawyers said the victim initially identified another man but changed her story under police pressure. She testified against Wood in his capital murder trial.
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