Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 04.06.23

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Elderly man kills wife and daughter out of 'mercy.' Hoax 911 calls garner armed responses on innocent victims.  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. Reginald McLaren, 81, calls Colorado cops to report his wife and adult daughter have been murdered. Cops find the women's bodies in two trash cans inside the home, one dismembered. McLaren then admits he killed them as an act of, quote, mercy because the family faced eviction. Crime Online's John Limley. Nancy McLaren, who had recently lost his job, knew, quote, what a miserable life they would have had if they lost their home.

So he killed his family knowing they are, quote, in a better place. McLaren's wife, Bethany, and daughter, Ruth, were both attacked with an axe. Cops also located a hacksaw used in the dismemberment. McLaren now charged with two counts of murder and abuse of a corpse. Have you heard of swatting? It's when a person makes a false 911 call in order to get an armed response from police at an innocent person's home. Ashton Garcia makes multiple such calls reporting threats or even major crimes. Garcia records the calls then posts them to Discord as quote entertainment. Garcia is accused of making more than 20 of these calls in a bid to extort victims for money, sexual photos, or their credit card information.

Law enforcement entered victims' homes with guns drawn on several occasions, but thankfully, Nancy, no one was hurt. Garcia, 20, now facing 10 felony counts of threat, hoax, and extortion. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A man with a hatchet jumped over a wall and invaded a daycare center in Brazil, killing four children and wounding at least five others. The assailant turned himself in at a police station and did not appear to have any connection with the center, which offers nursery services, preschool education, and after-school activities.

The dead were between the ages of five and seven. A police detective says authorities are still searching for a motive for the attack, which took place in Blumenau, a city in southern Brazil near the Atlantic coast. Images broadcast on network showed weeping parents outside the private daycare. According to the local affiliate of television network Globo, the attack took place on the center's playground. The TV station showed a photo of the suspect with a closely shaved head. Police have yet to confirm his identity. Blumenau's mayor suspended classes and said he will declare a 30-day mourning period.

The state government said in a statement that rumors circulating on social media of other potential attacks were false. Back in this country now, a fifth suspect has been arrested in a March 4th mass shooting at a 16th birthday party in suburban Atlanta, an attack that killed two teens and wounded seven others. For more, we turn to Sydney Sumner with Crime Online. To Kel Marquis Beverly Smart, a 21-year-old resident of Dallas, Georgia, was arrested in connection with the shooting at a house in the city of Douglasville. In addition to two counts of murder, Beverly Smart is facing 40 counts of participating in gang activity, nine counts each of aggravated assault and aggravated battery, and 20 counts of being a party to a crime. Beverly Smart, like the four other suspects

arrested so far, was denied bail. Arrested earlier were three 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old. They all face murder and gang charges, while two also face aggravated assault, aggravated battery, and gun charges. The Sheriff's Office didn't detail Beverly Smart's alleged role in the killings or say who is believed to have fired the guns. The two victims in the shooting have been identified as 15-year-old Samuel Moon and 14-year-old Ajaniye Hill. The Justice Department says it has tentatively settled a lawsuit over the 2017 mass shooting at a Texas church that will pay victims and their families more than $144 million. More than two dozen people were killed when Devin Patrick Kelly

opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Kelly, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at the church had served in the Air Force prior to the attack. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 killed was pregnant. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez had previously ruled that the Air Force was, quote, 60 percent liable for the attack because it failed to submit Kelly's assault conviction during his time in the Air Force to a national database. The Justice Department says the

settlement is still subject to court approvals. A Nebraska judge has rejected a challenge to the death penalty in the case of a man charged in the killings of four people last summer in a small town in the northeastern corner of the state. Once again, Crime Online's Sydney Sumner. Judge Brian Meismer said in a ruling that the lawyers representing 42-year-old Jason Jones didn't prove that Nebraska's death penalty law is unconstitutional, and it's too soon to determine if that penalty is appropriate in this case because it is still early in the process. Jones has yet to officially enter a plea in the case. Prosecutors said in January that they intend to seek the death penalty in this case because the killings were done at the

same time other felonies were committed, and at least two of the killings were carried out to conceal the other two. Plus, prosecutors said Jones set fire to the victim's homes in an effort to help conceal his identity. Jones is charged with arson, weapons counts, and four counts of first-degree murder in the August killings of an elderly couple, their daughter, and a neighbor. Jones is being held without bond. He is now scheduled to appear in court May 22nd. A Utah mom takes her two children out for dinner, but says she doesn't feel okay. And she sure doesn't act okay.

The mom pulls the car over, strips naked and walks off for getting her children in the car. The woman trudges through the snow as her oldest child, daughter, follows barefoot. The woman bangs on doors. Cops are called. The children are taken to the hospital. The mom, who is high on meth, now charged with child endangerment, abandonment, lewdness, and public drunk. Thanks, Mommy. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.