Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Search Continues for Missing University Student Sudiksha Konanki | Crime Alert Recap Saturday 03.15.25

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Breaking crime news as it happens throughout the day! Follow "Crime Alert Hourly Update" now on your favorite podcast app: https://link.chtbl.com/Crime_Alert Here's are some of our top stories this week: Sudiksha Konanki and five friends are staying at the Rio Republica in Punta Cana. The young woman doesn't return after a late night walk on the beach.  Sean "Diddy" Combs appeared in court this week,  grey-haired and defiant, pleading not guilty to an expanded indictment. The death of a Columbine High School survivor has been classified as a homicide Remains of missing 16-year-old Miranda Corsette found in a dumpster.  In Washington state, a man is shot during an argument over discarded chicken bones outside a grocery store See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crime Alert, hourly update, breaking crime news now. I'm Jackie Howard. The search continues for a University of Pittsburgh student who disappears while on spring break in the Dominican Republic. The last person who saw Sudiksha Konankis says he tried to save her from the water. And as he vomits up ocean water, she took her things and left. At least that's what he thinks. Konanki, 20, was last seen nine days ago with a group of friends heading to a beach in Punakana. When her friends left, Kononke is believed to have stayed behind with a Minnesota University student. He says the pair talked and kissed and were pulled farther into the ocean together by a large wave. He says he pulled

Kononke back to the shore using a swimming stroke he learned during his time as a pool lifeguard. Reportedly, the man has given police multiple versions of what happened. For more information on the search for Sudeiksa Kononkes, tune in to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Monday and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app. More crime and justice news after this. Crime Alert, hourly update, breaking crime news now. I'm Jennifer Gould. Sean Diddy Combs appeared in Manhattan federal court for a pretrial hearing, pleading not guilty to a superseding indictment

in his sex trafficking and racketeering case. Held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, Combs, now gray-haired, declined a full reading of the charges, asserting, quote-unquote, I'm fine, and maintaining his innocence. The updated indictment stretches his alleged crimes from 2004 to 2024, accusing him of forcing employees into grueling hours with minimal rest, using threats for compliance and engaging in forced labor within a racketeering conspiracy. It also reinforces claims of drug fueled so-called freak offs and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.

Combs legal saga ignited after his September 16, 2024 arrest following a federal indictment tying his empire, including Bad Boy Entertainment, to a criminal enterprise exploiting women and others. A 2016 video of him assaulting ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura aired in May of 2024 spurred her settled 2023 lawsuit and over 150 accusers to come forward. Here's Diddy discussing that video in a previous post. My behavior on that video is inexcusable.

I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted. in that video. Disgusting. Attorney Tony Busby now represents 152 victims filing 25 lawsuits by early March of 2025 with plans for over 100 more alleging rape, sexual assault and misconduct since 1991. Combs faces three charges, racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution, potentially yielding life imprisonment. Friday's hearing tackled trial logistics with jury selection discussions ongoing for the May 5th start date, expected to conclude by late May or early June, depending on testimony. Prosecutors anticipate a three-week

case. The defense won. Combs' team challenged the 2016 video's admissibility, alleging tampering, which CNN refutes. Held without bail at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center after repeated denials, including a $50 million bond. Combs faces flight risk accusations. His February 19th filing claimed racial bias and prosecution, citing uncharged white figures. Despite the escalating allegations, Combs insists he is innocent with his attorneys dismissing the claims. The next pretrial conference is set for April 25th. I'm Sydney Sumner. Almost 26 years after the Columbine High School massacre, its victim count has increased. A survivor of the massacre's recent death has been declared a homicide, according to a coroner's report.

Anne-Marie Hochhalter was found dead in her home in Westminster, Colorado at age 43 on February 16, 2025. Hodgehalter was a 17-year-old junior at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when 17-year-old Dylan Claybold and 18-year-old Eric Harris opened fire on their classmates and teachers, killing 13 people and injuring 23 before turning the weapons on themselves. Jefferson County 911. Yes, I am a teacher at Columbine High School. 13 people and injuring 23 before turning the table, kids. Heads under the table. Our teachers are screaming. Our little teachers are trying to take control. We need police here. We need to stay.

Oh, God. Stay in the line of fire. Oh, God. You were hearing one of the many 911 calls made from Columbine High School that day. Anne-Marie Hochhalter had just stepped outside for fresh air when she heard a popping noise and suddenly felt something strike her back. She describes her experience to U.S. News 10 years after the attack. I thought that it was a senior prank. I didn't think that it was real or anything, and I thought they were using paintball. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were up the concrete flight of stairs, and they were shooting down at everybody. I felt a stinging in my back. As a friend helped her,

she was struck again by a second bullet, which this time hit a vein. When I thought that this was the end, you know, I saw a red thing move out of the corner of my vision and it was an ambulance. They were able to get me to Swedish hospital and they did four hours of surgery. It was still very, very touch and go for, you know, a couple of weeks. They weren't really sure if I was going to make a full recovery. And, you know, barring this spinal cord injury, I did make a full recovery. Hochhalter says though she was left paralyzed by the attack and used a wheelchair for the rest of her life, she considered herself one of the lucky ones. Now, almost a month after her death, an autopsy report released by the Jefferson County Coroner's

Office declared that her manner of death is best classified as a homicide. The autopsy report noted that she had died due to sepsis, which is described as a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection, which can lead to organ failure, tissue damage, and death. The two gunshot wounds that left Hochhalter paralyzed and wheelchair-bound were also a significant contributing factor in her death. With Hochhalter's death, the number of victims of the Columbine High School massacre has risen to 14. The count does not include shooters Claybold and Harris, who killed themselves before being arrested. The autopsy confirmed the suspicions of Hochhalter's loved ones,

including Sue Townsend, the stepmother of Columbine victim Lauren Townsend, who told the Denver Post shortly after Hochhalter's death that it appeared to be related to complications from medical issues stemming from injuries sustained in the shooting. She told me once, I am not a victim, I'm a survivor. She said, I can do anything you can do. It just takes me longer. She was fiercely independent and she wanted what had happened to her to benefit somebody else. She had so much adversity and she fought really hard against letting that

define her. Sue and her husband Rick Townsend became close with Hochhalter after losing their daughter Lauren in the massacre and Anne Marie lost her mother just six months after the shooting. In trying to process my grief, I thought that if I help somebody else that it would kind of help me. What happens I think when you reach out to help somebody is you learn that you get so much more out of it than you give. We got to watch her go from a shy 17 year old high school girl and blossom into this incredibly independent and confident and fun young woman. Hochhalter was a multi-instrumentalist who played the clarinet, piano, guitar, and harp. She also had a big love for dogs throughout her life, fostering and owning many over the years. In one of her final Facebook posts on the 25th anniversary of the shooting,

Hochhalter wrote that while she had previously avoided memorial services due to PTSD, she had attended the anniversary vigil and found the occasion most healing. She wrote, I've truly been able to heal my soul since that awful day in 1999, noting that she felt the presence of the 13 victims sitting there with smiles on their faces, wanting us to remember the good times. I'm Nicole Parton. A 16-year-old girl who went missing last month has been found murdered, dismembered, and discarded in a dumpster by a couple in Florida. Authorities say she was abducted after being lured through a social media application.

Detectives from the St. Petersburg Police Department reported that the remains of Miranda Corsette were discovered in a dumpster following her missing person's report that was filed on February 24. The primary suspect, 35-year-old Stephen Griss, allegedly enticed Corsette through an online dating app before their in-person meeting on February 14. Quote, after their initial meeting, the girl returned home, but the following day, she went back to his residence, police stated in a social media update. According to the police, it is believed that Corsette spent time with Gress and his partner, 37-year-old Michelle Brandes, at their home. Her grandmother reported her missing after she failed to return home on February 24.

Guilford police noted that they had been previously interacting with Corsette, who had a previous history of running away once before. She lived with her grandmother. Her grandmother, who is her main caregiver, mentioned that Corsette usually comes right back home so she doesn't report her missing every time she goes out the door, the grandmother said. Commander Mary Farrand, acting police chief of Gulfport, explained during a press conference, quote, this time she didn't return in a reasonable time frame. Her grandmother knew something was wrong. On February 20, an argument erupted between the girl, Corsette, and Brandis, the man's girlfriend,

concerning a lost piece of jewelry, during which the teenager was reportedly assaulted, according to police. Here's St. Petersburg Chief of Police Anthony Holloway. So from the 20th through the 24th, she was beaten and tortured because they could not find this piece of jewelry. She was then killed. Mr. Gress placed her body in his car along with his domestic partner, Michelle Brandes, and they drove her to Largo. Miranda was dismembered at that location. They then placed her in a car, and they drove her down to Ruskin, where they dumped her into a dumpster, and her body is somewhere, possibly in a landfill somewhere in that county. Michelle, if you're out there, we're trying to tell you to turn yourself in, because we will find you

sooner or later. If anybody out there is trying to help Michelle, if we can, we will charge you. Investigators believe the girl was killed between February 20 and February 24. They allege that Gress transported her body to a residence in Largo, Florida, owned by Brandis' mother, where evidence indicates the dismemberment of the body took place. Gress then reportedly drove the remains to Hillsborough County and disposed of them in a dumpster. Quote, detectives have located the dumpster and are actively working to recover all pieces of the body, the police department said in their statement. Authorities received a tip regarding Corsette's disappearance and murder on March 7. Brandis, the girlfriend, turned herself into law enforcement on Saturday

morning and now faces a charge of first-degree murder. Gress, who was arrested on unrelated charges on March 5, has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping. This is an appalling crime, stated Holloway. We are committed to ensuring justice for Miranda. I'm Drew Nelson. In Washington State, a man is shot during an argument over discarded chicken bones outside a grocery store. I was in the military. I never got shot, but I got shot in Safeway over some chicken. Jesse Grant, a father of three, was shot in the thigh at the Safeway store in Seattle.

He had been eating fried chicken in a parked car before the shooting, thanks to Safeway's Monday cheap chicken deal. He spoke to KCPQ from his hospital bed. I was throwing my chicken onto the ground outside my window, so I didn't get any mess in my co-worker's car. He opens up the car and steps onto some chicken. Grant says a woman nearby accused him of throwing chicken bones at her car. And she's like, what the f***, why is there chicken on the ground? And she looks over at me and is like, are you serious, man?

You're throwing chicken onto the ground? And I'm like, who cares? Leave me alone. Grant says the argument started after the woman tried to slash his tires with scissors. Video shows Grant holding the woman in a headlock. She says, quote, you're throwing chicken at my car. The video shows scissors on the ground next to a scratched wheel of the car. The woman pulled a handgun from her waistband and pointed it at Grant's head. She then shot Grant in the thigh, causing him to fall to the ground and said, quote, I'm going to shoot you again, bro. Police have not released the identity of the shooter or another woman thought to be with her.

Grant started a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical costs. The goal is $12,000, but so far it hasn't raised a dime. The investigation continues. For the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast app. With this Crime Alert, I'm Drew Nelson. This is an iHeart Podcast.