Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 07.15.24

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Elderly woman severely injured by caretaker's 40 wolf-dogs. Attempted plane thief asks for instructions to fly.  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. Davidson County, North Carolina. Sheriffs start surveilling a home after they get reports it's overrun with dogs. They quickly learn an elderly woman lives in the home with a caretaker, Melvin Berry, and 40, 4-0, wolf-dog hybrids. Cops determine the home's uninhabitable. They go inside to remove the woman. They find her severely injured and the wolf dogs feral. Nancy, we now know the

wolf dogs did cause the woman's injuries. She is still in serious condition at a hospital. It is illegal to own these kinds of dogs in North Carolina and several other states due to their aggressive and wild nature. While all efforts were made to send the dogs to a rehabilitation center, they were ultimately euthanized due to their risk to public safety. Melvin Berry now charged with elder abuse and 20 counts animal cruelty. New Smyrna Beach police called to the local airport after a flight instructor reports a man with a blue bag crouched on the wing of a plane in a non-public area of a tarmac. The man reportedly asked the instructor how he, the man with the bag, could fly a plane. When police arrived, Robert Stringstra is in the co-pilot's seat. Stringstra again asked officers to explain how to fly before

jumping out the emergency exit. Cops quickly get the 22-year-old in cuffs and discover he's carrying both marijuana and meth. Seamstra now charged with trespassing, grand theft, and drugs. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. We begin in Texas as a suspect has now been arrested and charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a Houston area sheriff's deputy. This following a police manhunt initiated after an assault at a local pizzeria. We turn to Sydney Sumner of Crime Online for more. 28-year-old deputy Fernando Escueda was killed on the morning of July 11th

by a suspect who allegedly pistol-whipped a pizzeria clerk just hours earlier. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez provided details on the incident during a news conference on the night of the shooting. Ronald Palmer Jr. was taken into custody around 7 p.m. that evening after an intensive manhunt. Initially charged with aggravated assault against the Little Caesars Pizza employee, Sheriff Gonzalez later confirmed via social media that Palmer had also been charged with capital murder for the death of Deputy Escueda. The sequence of events began just after 10 p.m. on July 10 when Harris County Sheriff's

deputies responded to an assault report at the Little Caesars Pizza in the Houston area. Chief Deputy Mike Lee explained that a customer, upset over an incorrect order, assaulted the clerk by pistol-whipping him before fleeing the scene. The clerk was able to provide a description of the suspect's vehicle and its license plate number, which deputies traced to a specific location. Deputy Escueda located the vehicle around midnight. Tragically, officers later found Escueda shot multiple times and rushed him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. At the time of the incident, Deputy Escueda, along with all other Sheriff's Department staff, had been working extended 12-hour shifts to provide security and prevent

looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. A man has been sentenced in connection with the death of Dennis Day, a beloved original cast member of Walt Disney's 1950s TV show, The Mickey Mouse Club. Once again, Crime Online, Sidney Sumner. 41-year-old Daniel Burda has received a sentence of just over four years in prison after entering a modified guilty plea days earlier. Burda, who was working as a live-in handyman at Day's home in Phoenix, Oregon, pleaded no contest to charges of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of a corpse. This plea means he acknowledges that the state has

enough evidence to prove the charges at trial, effectively carrying the same weight as a guilty plea. Prosecutors revealed that Berta was responsible for causing Day's death and subsequently using his identity to make unauthorized purchases. The 76-year-old Day had been attempting to evict Berta around the time he went missing in mid-2018. Tragically, Dennis Day's badly decomposed body was not discovered for nine months, found beneath a pile of clothes in his home. This delay has led to a lawsuit against the Phoenix Police Department by Day's family, who claimed the department's repeated visits to the house without finding his remains caused significant emotional distress. According to the lawsuit, during one search, officers even stepped on Day's body, resulting in fractures to the corpse. Despite this, the body was not located until

April 2019, when Oregon State Police brought in a cadaver-sniffing dog. This delayed discovery prevented the medical examiner from determining an exact cause of death. Berta's case experienced multiple delays due to assessments of his mental fitness and other legal challenges. Court records indicate he faced additional charges while out of custody and has recently been sentenced to an additional two years in a separate burglary case, bringing his total time in prison to just over six years. The Phoenix Police Department has denied any wrongdoing with a trial set to begin in October in Jackson County Circuit Court. Thanks, John. Taylor Casey, 41, travels from Chicago to the Bahamas for a month-long yoga retreat. Taylor's been practicing yoga 15 years, and this is

fulfilling her dream of becoming a certified instructor. She regularly updates friends and family on progress, and she's looking forward to sharing what she's learned. She's to come home in two weeks. Taylor doesn't show up to morning classes. Staff at the Shivananda Ashram retreat immediately report her missing. NASA authorities use drones, canines, and divers to search. Her cell phones recovered from the ocean, not far from the hotel. Taylor Casey, African American, 5'10", 145 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes,

often covers her hair with a bandana. If you have info on Taylor Casey now missing two weeks, call the Royal Bahamas Police 242-322-4444. 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.