Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 06.10.24

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Girl escapes attempted bus stop kidnapping. Customer commits assault by chocolate egg.  For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. An Arizona girl leaves her family's apartment to walk to the bus stop. She crosses paths with Joseph Ruiz as she leaves her apartment complex but thinks nothing of it. She goes on her way. As she walks down the street, a silver sedan pops a U-turn, comes to a stop next to her, and Ruiz tries to force her into the car. The girl outruns Ruiz and screams, so he takes off. Nancy, Ruiz's

mother says her son was behaving oddly the day of the attempted kidnapping. Ruiz shares an apartment with her at the complex, despite a previous aggravated assault charge against him for stabbing her in the neck. She said Ruiz once confessed that he tried to kiss his underage cousin. The girl reported the attack to her bus driver who alerted the school and the authorities. Neighbor Joseph Ruiz, 37, now charged with attempted kidnapping. John Mejas is next in line at a Florida convenience store but doesn't answer when the employee, Edward Riordan, calls him up. Mayhaus instead waits for the other cashier to open and checks out with them.

Riordan brushes the whole thing off as odd, but Mayhaus escalates it, chucking a chocolate egg at Riordan's forehead. Riordan tells him to leave the store. Mayhas jumps behind the counter and starts punching Riordan. Cops are called. Mayhas, 27, now charged with battery by chocolate egg. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. Federal prosecutors have announced that a former U.S. soldier has been extradited from Ukraine on longstanding accusations that he went on an international crime spree, which included the 2018 killings and robbery of a couple in Florida. All of this to finance plans to travel to Venezuela and conduct military-style raids against its government.

With the details, here's Sydney Sumner of Crime Online. Officials stated in a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice that since 2019, Craig Austin Lang has been the subject of federal indictments in Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. According to the announcement, the 34-year-old was taken to the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from Ukraine after his claim to challenge extradition was denied by the European Court of Human Rights. In court documents, Lange, a citizen of the United States who was born in Surprise, Arizona, entered a not guilty plea in Florida. In the three cases, Lange is charged with

a bevy of offenses. The indictment spells out how Lange used a gun during a deadly violent crime in Florida, violated the Neutrality Act, and conspired to kill people in a foreign country for his plans in Venezuela, a country with which the United States has a peaceful relationship. Yet another indictment claims that Lang exchanged cash, weapons, and a military smoke grenade for another person's identity in order to apply for a U.S. passport in North Carolina, some months after the alleged deaths in Florida. Furthermore, Lang faces charges in Arizona for allegedly trying to obtain a Mexican visa in September 2018 by presenting a U.S. passport to Mexican authorities in violation of the passport's limitations. In the meantime, a number of other people who were indicted with Lange in the Florida and North Carolina cases have already been found

guilty or entered guilty pleas. Authorities allege that the Florida killings occurred in April of 2018, a year after Lange and Alex Jared Zweifelhofer, a fellow former U.S. Army soldier, met in Ukraine and claimed to be battling Russian separatists as part of a volunteer battalion. According to an FBI affidavit, the two were apprehended in Kenya in 2017 while attempting to enter South Sudan and were subsequently deported to the United States. A Brooksville, Florida couple in their 50s had planned to purchase firearms that Lange and Zweifelhofer had put up for sale online, but the two men allegedly killed the pair in order to take the $3,000 that was being charged for the weapons, this according to authorities. Zweifelhofer was found guilty by a jury in March of all charges in the Florida case,

including using a firearm during a violent and lethal crime. He's currently awaiting his sentence. Thanks, John. Tabitha Tudor is just 13, walks from home to her bus stop in Nashville. But Tabitha doesn't get to school. Her middle school tells Tudor's mom Tabitha did not get on the bus that morning. Mom immediately reports the daughter missing. Cops search the neighborhood for Tabitha.

Canines pick up her scent. The dogs track her along her route and lead investigators to an alleyway. Police then get a tip. A neighbor saw Tabitha get into a red car in the alleyway. Five months later, Heaven Ross is taken on her walk to school, Northport, Alabama. Cops believe Heaven's disappearance is connected to Tabitha's. Police find a note with two sets of initials and believe TDT refers to Tabitha Danielle Tudors. They have not learned the identity of the other set, MTL, and the note has provided no leads.

Tabitha Tudors now missing over 20 years. If you have info or think you do on Tabitha Tudor, contact Nashville Metro PD, 615-862-7803. Repeat, 615-862-7803. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.