Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 03.07.24

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Mom leaves 16-month-old home alone for 10-day vacation abroad. You'll never guess where cops found this illegal animal.  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. Crystal Candelario sets her 16-month-old up in a playpen at their Ohio home with her favorite blankets and toys. She then tells baby Jalen goodbye, but there's no babysitter. Candelario leaves the tot alone 10 days while she, mommy, vacations in Puerto Rico. When mommy returns, Jalen Candelario is not breathing. The baby girl pronounced dead at the hospital.

Nancy, hospital staff say the child died of starvation and severe dehydration. The pack and play in which Jalen Candelario died was full of blankets saturated with urine and feces. As part of a plea deal, two additional murder charges and an assault charge against Candelario were dropped. Candelario's defense attorney claims several mitigating issues will be raised at sentencing next week. Crystal Candelario, 32, pleads guilty to aggravated murder. Florida cops stop a couple for rolling through a stop sign at an overpass deep in the Everglades. The cop asks what the couple's doing at 4 a.m.

Ariel LaQuire and Michael Clemens report they've been gathering frogs and snakes. Cops search the car and find a backpack crammed full of 41 turtles. The officers ask if they've got anything else, and LaQuire reluctantly pulls a foot-long alligator out of, wait for it, her pants. Fish and Wildlife step in, and the couple now charged with several turtle-related offenses. LaQuire additionally hit with possessing an American alligator. That's one thing I've never seen

on a rap sheet. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Lumley. An Internal Revenue Service special agent charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a co-worker following training exercises at a gun range last year now has a trial date set for April. For more, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. Larry Edward Brown Jr. was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter of an officer of the United States by a federal grand jury. Following his initial court appearance in Tucson, he was released with his trial slated to begin on April 2.

The 42-year-old Brown of the Peoria, Arizona area is accused of shooting IRS Special Agent Patrick Bauer on August 17. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Brown and Bauer were both IRS Special Agents in the Criminal Investigation Unit, who had received training as use-of-force instructors. Brown has more than 12 years of experience, while Bauer was a 15-year veteran. The prosecution says that the special agents were receiving classroom instruction in standard pistol qualifications at the range at the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix. They claim that training had ended for the day when Brown entered a building where firearms instructors can observe and direct live-fire training. The indictment states that Brown, quote,

handled his firearm without due caution and with reckless disregard for human life, striking Special Agent Bauer in the torso with a single gunshot. Bauer had led the live-fire pistol qualifications just prior to the incident. Authorities reported that despite the efforts of on-site medics and emergency personnel, Bauer died to the incident. Authorities reported that despite the efforts of on-site medics and emergency personnel, Bauer died at the scene. Prosecutors say that if found guilty, Brown could spend up to eight years behind bars. The owners of a boys' boarding school in Missouri, a husband and wife, are now in jail and charged with felonies following a protracted investigation by the county sheriff.

Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. 57-year-old Larry Musgraves Jr. was apprehended on the campus of ABM Ministries in Piedmont, a small town located 130 miles south of St. Louis. This according to a news release issued by Wayne County Sheriff Dean Finch. When 64-year-old Carmen Musgraves visited the jail to check on her husband the next afternoon, she was taken into custody. Both are being held without bond after being charged with first-degree kidnapping. In 2009, the school, which was co-ed at the time, was forced to close after a federal complaint claimed that the Musgraves family had neglected to take steps to protect a female student after she accused a former principal of engaging in sexual acts with her. Court documents reveal a settlement of $750,000

was agreed upon by ABM Ministries and the Musgraves, while the principal agreed to pay $100,000. We're learning from our friends with the Kansas City Star newspaper that all five of the boys who fled the school since January have now been returned to their homes. Thanks, John. Tara Smith, 16, runs errands with her mom, who then drops her off at their Redding, California home. Mom joins her husband at the family business Oasis Fund Center. Smith, who's been grounded, is supposed to stay home until her shift at the Oasis that evening. Smith then begs her little sister not to tell, but she's going for a jog. She'll be back in 20 minutes. When Tara doesn't show up to work

that evening, her mom drives the neighborhood. No sign of Tara. A friend of Tara's tells her mom Tara was in a relationship with her married 29-year-old taekwondo instructor, Charles Zink. Tara's mother finds a letter Tara wrote ending the relationship with Zink. Zink swears after Tara ended the relationship that afternoon. He dropped her off, then prayed in a park for five hours. Zink denies involvement in the teen girl's disappearance and stopped cooperating with authorities. Tara Smith now missing 25 years.

If you have info on Tara Smith, contact Shasta County, California Sheriff's 530-245-6025. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.