Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 01.11.24

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Father kills pregnant wife and their baby. Drug dealer calls cops when customer robs him.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Idaho cops call to a convenience store when Jeremy Best wanders inside, buck naked. Best taken to the hospital but released that afternoon when his confusion subsides. The next day, his wife, Callie Randall, calls 911. By the time cops get there, Randall is dead. Best and their 10-month-old baby, Zeke, both missing. Two days later, hunters stumble upon Best, naked in a sleeping bag, on the side of the road. Little baby Zeke found yards away, dead. Nancy Best was originally charged with two counts of murder after his wife, who was six months pregnant, was found shot to death in their driveway. After Randall's murder,

Best took off in an SUV with Zeke, and the Bonneville County Medical Examiner has now confirmed the 10-month-old died from a mortal knife wound to his neck. After a court-ordered mental competency evaluation, Best has been deemed fit to proceed. Jeremy Best, 48, now charged with three counts of murder. Eric Thomas calls cops to report a theft. When they get there, he's holding over 40 grams of pot, explaining someone stole $10 from him during his last pot sale. Well, he's promptly busted. Cops find this is not his first drug offense. While Thomas was heading to court to address previous drug offenses, the 33-year-old emptied seven bags of pot from his pockets when he was going through security, admitting it was all for sale. Eric Thomas now charged with multiple drug-related

felonies for the third time. Wow, he must have been high. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A preliminary hearing has now been held for an Illinois man accused of murder, attempted murder, and a hate crime in connection with the October attack on a Palestinian American mother and her young boy. For more, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. 71-year-old Joseph Chuba is charged with the fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Wadia Alfayumi on October 14 in Plainfield, Illinois, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago. In the attack, he also wounded Hanan Shaheen. Chuba entered a plea of not guilty to each of the charges. Shaheen survived the attack but was in the hospital at the time of her son's funeral service. She has since been released. According to Shaheen, Chuba but was in the hospital at the time of her son's funeral service. She has since been released.

According to Shaheen, Chuba, the family's landlord, was unhappy about the Israel-Hamas conflict and attacked them after she encouraged him to pray for peace. An autopsy revealed that the boy sustained numerous stab wounds before his death. Investigators say the victims were singled out due to their Muslim beliefs and in retaliation for the war, which had started just one week prior to the attack. Before Chuba's hearing, a small group of Muslim residents from the Chicago area gathered and held up white electric candles outside of the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Illinois. Oday Al-Fayyumi, Wadia's father, spoke to reporters in Arabic before having a translator interpret his words into English. Al-Fayyumi said Chuba should bear the maximum amount of responsibility and stated that his son deserves nothing less

than that. Wadia was attacked because he was a Muslim, he said, and people need to keep that in mind. During the brief hearing, Chuba remained silent. His next court date is set for the morning of March 7th. Now to New Jersey as police search for the killer of a Muslim leader shot just before morning prayers outside his mosque. Authorities are offering a reward to anyone who can assist them in making an arrest. Amid a surge in bias attacks around the country, officials are pledging to safeguard people of faith, even though they maintain they have no evidence that the imam's killing was motivated by religious hatred. A targeted dragnet of law enforcement has been created following the killing of Imam Hassan Sharif as he was readying to open the Masjid Muhammad Newark Mosque. The Essex County Sheriff issued a $25,000 reward as New

Jersey's Attorney General promised support to county and local officials. A court has decided that a New Jersey man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie, author of this satanic verses, may obtain information about Rushdie's planned memoir about the incident prior to going on trial. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. The trial for Hadi Matar's attempted murder and assault was initially set to begin with jury selection on January 8 8. Now, the trial has been postponed because Mattar's attorney contends that the defendant has a legal right to view the book and all relevant materials prior to standing trial. Rushdie's manuscript

is scheduled for publication in April of 2024. Any witnesses' written or recorded remarks regarding the incident are regarded as possible evidence, according to Mattar's lawyers. 26-year-old Mattar of Fairview, New Jersey, has been detained without bond since August 2022, when authorities claim he stabbed Rushdie over a dozen times after barging onto the stage at the Chautauqua Institution, where the writer was scheduled to give a talk. The attack left 75-year-old Rushdie with injuries to his left hand and blindness in his right eye. In October 2023, the author said that he has included details hand and blindness in his right eye. In October 2023, the author said that he has included details about the attack in his upcoming memoir,

Knife, Meditations After an Attempted Murder. The prosecutor stated that as part of the legal discovery process, he asked for a copy of the book at the time the trial was being planned. He added that Rushdie's representatives had turned down the proposal, citing concerns over intellectual property rights. It's anticipated that defense lawyer Nathaniel Barone will subpoena the book material. Caden Black, 19, moves out of his dad's Pennsylvania home to live with friends after starting a new job. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Caden becomes more reserved, spending time in his room instead of hanging out with those same friends. He calls his dad, telling him he's coming by the next day but never shows up.

Caden last seen by roommates at their home the night before the missed visit. Caden Black, now missing from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, over a year. If you have info on Caden Black, please call Lower Windsor Township PD, 717-244-8055. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. For this Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.