Man Hit by Train in Greenwich, Dies

Greenwich Time- Alexander Bertrand, 21, of Lawrence Court in North Woodmere, N.Y. has been identified as the man who died Wednesday night after he was struck by a train.

Metro North Railroad Police are handling the investigation, and Bertrand's identity was released by railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders.

Bertand died at Stamford Hospital Wednesday night after he was struck by a southbound Metro-North Railroad train in Greenwich around 6:45 p.m., officials said.

"We received an emergency call from MTA of a subject possibly hit by a train in the vicinity of the Greenwich train station," Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey said from the scene near the Davis Avenue overpass and Bruce Park Avenue Extension. "We located an individual who was in cardiac arrest who appeared to be hit by a train."

Bertand also suffered other traumatic injuries, said Heavey, who didn't know the extent of those injuries.

Metro-North spokesman Salvatore Arena said the man was hit by an eastbound train heading to New Haven. All four tracks had to be shut down, causing significant delays. At 8:45 p.m., Arena said two tracks had been reopened, but delays remained up to 45 minutes on the New Haven Line in both directions.

Police, fire and Greenwich Emergency Medical Service personnel flooded the area of the train station in search of the individual before finding him about 1,000 feet east of the Davis Avenue overpass on the Metro-North Railroad tracks, Heavey said.

The area where Bertrand was found is just under a half-mile east of the Greenwich train station. The man was between tracks 1 and 3, Heavey said.

"The train that apparently struck him was empty at the time," Heavey said.
MTA police are conducting the investigation of the incident, Heavey said. He didn't know if the incident was a suicide attempt.

"The conductor is being interviewed by MTA police," said Heavey, who was joined at the scene by First Selectman Peter Tesei.

Police closed the Davis Avenue intersection with Bruce Park Avenue to traffic as the investigation continued.

Metro-North service was restored shortly before 10 p.m.

Medical Examiner Releases Ruling in Death of Keith Morris

Stamford Patch- There was little information available from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Connecticut relating to the death of Keith Morris, the New Rochelle firefighter who died in a boating crash Sunday night as he drove four others home from a restaurant.




"We only give out two pieces of information to the public," said a representative at the office. "Ruling and cause."



What little was available only gave a glimpse into the night tragedy struck:



•Morris death was ruled accidental.

•Cause of death was drowning.

No toxicology reports or descriptions of physical injuries he may have suffered as a result of the crash that might have impeded his ability to swim following the flip were available.



Morris, 30, was driving four friends home to New Rochelle from the Crab Shell waterfront restaurant & bar on his boat at approximately 10:30 p.m. when he struck a breakwall and flipped the vessel in Long Island Sound, near the Stamford Lighthouse.



Two of the passengers were clinging to the boat, waiting for help to arrive while two of the passengers were inside the cabin when the boat flipped. They were trapped until rescue divers arrived, and eventually freed.



Divers searched for Morris throughout the evening, to no avail. His body would be recovered close to the scene of the crash the following afternoon in roughly 16 feet of water at low tide. He would've been covered by 24 feet of water and debris during high tide at the time of the crash.



New Rochelle firefighters are still struggling to cope with the loss. DiMeglio also said the firefighters in Morris' company has been dealing with things, a majority of the time, in their own way.



"We told them that we have resources available if they need them," DiMeglio said. "But, as of now, those resources aren't being utilized."



Funeral arrangements have been made with viewing hours for friends and family Thursday and Friday with a mass and interment on Saturday. Chief Louis DiMeglio said he would do everything in his power to help Morris' family.



"We just told the family that we'll do our best to comply with whatever their wishes are," said DiMeglio, who knew Morris well and worked with him closely.



The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to “Butterflies from Jodie," the Jodie Torigian Charitable Fund, 31 President Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801.

Poor Man..

NYPost- A Bronx school bus driver died yesterday from the beating he suffered after he accidentally knocked a side-view mirror from a double-parked car, a spokeswoman for his bus company said.

Juan Delvalle, 65, never regained consciousness after Joey Scott, 30, allegedly punched him twice in the face June 11, said Carolyn Daly, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic Express bus company.



He died peacefully at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. “The family had been struggling all week with whether or not to take him off life support,” Daly said..



“The swelling and bleeding in the brain were extensive,” Daly said. “He was hooked up to a ventilator and that was the only reason he could breathe. He never regained consciousness. It was a very, very severe injury.”



Delvalle had asked to not be hooked up to artificial life support.



Once his family gathered last night — some from as far as Colorado and Puerto Rico — doctors turned off the life support machines, and he died at 6:19 p.m.



Delvalle, who'd driven for Atlantic Express for eight years, was driving two middle-school students in his yellow bus on Anthony Avenue near Echo Place when he clipped Scott's illegally-parked Chrysler Sebring.



The passing school bus ripped off the Chrysler's mirror.



In an extreme display of road-rage, Scott lost it and punched the grandfather twice, police said.



Delvalle fell backward and his head struck the pavement. He was rushed to the hospital and never woke up again.



Delvalle's family and friends hope the Bronx DA's charges will charge Scott with homicide, Daly said.



“You don’t lose it over a mirror and you certainly don’t punch a 65-year-old man wearing a uniform who’s got children in his care,” Daly siad.



Scott, who has a long rap sheet, fled the scene. Cops found him at his Tremont apartment, and needed two hours to negotiate his arrest.



Scott remains in custody, unable to post $250,000 cash bond. He has a court date Monday.

Beautiful Vintage Photographs of Lady Liberty

"These photographs, recently put on display at the New York Public Library, document the statue's construction during her years in Paris between 1877 and 1885."

 



Fatal Bronx Bus Crash Apparently Due to Fatigue

NY Post- The passengers didn’t have a chance.


Federal investigators yesterday released a dramatic video reconstruction of the early-morning New England Thruway bus crash that killed 15 and injured 18 — showing the path of the doomed World Wide Tours coach in its final seconds.




In the computer simulation of the March 2011 disaster, the bus careens off the travel lanes and across the 10-foot-wide shoulder.



Then the right side of the 26-ton bus — on its way to Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut — flips onto the guardrail, and skids along the barrier for several seconds before crushing it.


The coach then flips fully onto its right side and blasts into a stanchion holding up a roadway sign, which slices through the bus roof like a hot knife through butter.



As the bus initially veered off the road, fatigued driver Ophadell Williams — who might have had as little as three hours’ sleep in the previous three days — never slammed on the brakes or made any effort to steer out of harm’s way, the National Transportation Safety Board said.



Seat belts would have saved lives and prevented injuries in the crash, the NTSB concluded, but the passenger seats had none.



The NTSB also faulted the location of the signpost just 15 feet from the travel lanes of the Thruway.



If the roadway had been properly designed, the signpost either would have been at least 30 feet away or protected by a far stronger barrier, the NTSB said.

Still, most of the blame for the crash rested with Williams’ failure to get enough sleep and with his driving the bus too fast.



Just 60 seconds before the disaster, Williams was driving at 78 mph in a 50-mph zone, the feds found.



And in the 10 seconds before the crash, the bus was moving at 64 mph.



“Together, fatigue and speed are an especially lethal combination,” said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, adding that driver sleepiness has been a factor in seven of the last 19 motor-coach accidents investigated by the board.



Along with the computer simulation, the NTSB also released video graphics showing how seat belts would have prevented injuries.



One simulation shows unbelted passengers tumbling into each other — bodies were contorted between the seats and luggage racks — as the bus turned onto its side.



A second shows how the passengers would have been held in their seats by lap and shoulder belts.



On the World Wide Tours crash bus, only the driver’s seat had a belt.



Seat belts would be mandatory in all new motor coaches under a rule now being considered by the US Department of Transportation.



Bus-industry lobbyists are on board with the idea — and they note that even though it’ll be years before the new rule takes effect, seat belts are already standard on new motor coaches.



“It’s almost impossible to buy a large bus without seat belts,” said Victor Parra of the American Motorcoach Association. “Most companies are being proactive.”



NTSB investigators also cited a litany of other issues.



World Wide Tours was responsible for “inadequate safety oversight” of Williams and did a poor job of checking his background, which includes a manslaughter conviction in a fatal stabbing and a horrendous driving record that includes 18 license suspensions.



Williams had applied for driver’s licenses under fake names and had lied on job applications for casino clerk and MTA bus driver.



And just three days before the deadly Bronx crash, Williams was involved in a minor bus crash on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.



Williams was recently indicted by a Bronx grand jury on 15 counts of manslaughter.



“Drivers with poor driving records are more likely to be involved in a future accident,” NTSB investigators noted.



Board members were astonished that World Wide Tours was denied a Defense Department contract to transport troops but was still allowed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to carry paying passengers.



“Something seems to be badly broken” if one government agency deemed the company unsafe, while another did not, said NTSB member Robert Sumwalt.



And, amazingly, although World Wide Tours is formally out of business, the NTSB says the company’s employees and buses are up and running under the business name Great Escapes, which operates out of the same garage that WWT used in Brooklyn’s Gowanus section.


A Great Escapes employee hung up the phone on a reporter yesterday.

Horrific Cab Crash on Long Island Kills Grandmother, Seriously Injures Grandson

NY Daily News- A horrific three-vehicle Long Island Expressway accident killed a Utah woman and seriously injured her grandson shortly after they arrived for a dream New York vacation.



Suzanne Nicholson, 60, was riding with the 11-year-old boy inside a cab from JFK Airport to her hotel when the taxi clipped the back of a Porsche on the rain-slicked Queens highway, police said.



The cab flipped onto its side early Saturday and skidded from the left lane into the right, where it stopped in the path of an oncoming garbage truck.



Nicholson, of Ogden, Utah, and cabbie Mohamed Hussain, 46, of Queens, were both killed in the brutal 12:32 a.m. wreck.



Her grandson Mason Larson survived, but suffered broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, a punctured lung and a concussion, according to family and friends.



The little boy was listed in stable condition with a positive prognosis at Elmhurst General Hospital, where his grandmother was pronounced dead hours earlier.



Duane Nicholson, the dead woman’s husband of 37 years, was up waiting to hear from his wife when the phone brought news of the tragedy.



“I’m still stunned,” he said. “I’m waiting for someone to wake me up from this bad dream.”

The drivers of the Porsche and the garbage truck both emerged without injuries.



According to Nicholson, Suzanne and the little boy were meeting in the city with her best friend — who brought along a grandson, too.



The quartet planned a weeklong “dream vacation” in the city as a reward for the boys’ academic achievement in a school competition called “Give Me Liberty.”



The two youngsters were honored for their knowledge of the presidents, states, state capitals and the Gettysburg Address.



The planned tour of the Big Apple included stops at the Statue of Liberty, the Museum of Natural History and Yankee Stadium for a game between the Bronx Bombers and Tampa Bay.



“My wife loved New York,” said Duane Nicholson. “She was planning this for three months. She was really excited.”

Flight 3407 Memorial

If memory serves, my article on the plane crash when it originally happened was one of my first posts ever.
So sad.=[

CLARENCE, NY-- More than three years after the plane crash in Clarence, the Flight 3407 Memorial will be dedicated today in memory of those who died.
The ceremony wasl held on Long Street in Clarence, where the plane went down on that cold February night.

Fifty people died in the crash.
The flight operated by Colgan Air crashed into a house on Feb. 12, 2009 as it approached Buffalo Niagara International Airport at the end of a short flight from Newark, N.J. All 49 people on board and one of the home's owners, Doug Wielinski, were killed.

At the memorial dedication, the victims' names will be read. Wielinski's wife Karen, who escaped her destroyed home, spoke to reporters after the ceremony.
The tribute features 51 steppingstones, one for each victim and another for the unborn child of one of the passengers.

Suicide Adds to History of Kennedy Misfortunes

BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- Every family has its share of pain and triumph. And then there are the Kennedys.



America's great political dynasty is grieving again after Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., hanged herself Wednesday at the family's 10-acre estate in suburban New York.



Her death, at age 52, came as a shock to some friends and family, even though the past two years had been undeniably tough ones. The couple was going through a divorce, and Mary had been charged twice with driving while intoxicated in 2010.



But Victoria Michaelis, a friend since Mary's college days, said she hadn't seemed suicidal, or crippled by the alcohol problems that briefly landed her in the headlines two springs ago.



"She was definitely suffering, but she was very, very spiritual and a resolute Catholic," Michaelis said. "I'd say she was depressed the last two years since the divorce. But she would put that aside and ask you how you were. I saw her a couple of weeks ago, and she was fine."



Her death resonated, too, with a public that has watched tragedy march through the ranks of the Kennedy clan again and again.



"I think every family has its tragedies. But this is too much," said Kim O'Connell, who dropped off a bouquet of Calla lilies at the family's home in Bedford on Thursday morning. She had met Robert and Mary only a few times, while working at their health club, but felt a connection anyway. "I just thought she was just a lady. I woke up this morning, and I wanted to do something."



Mary Kennedy had lived much her life at the edge of the spotlight that shines on the Kennedy family. An architectural designer with New Jersey roots, she met her estranged husband's sister, Kerry, in boarding school when they were still teenagers and had stayed close to the clan through the decades before marrying Robert in 1994.



Robert is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general who was slain in 1968 while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.



Mary was RFK Jr.'s second wife, and she entered the family in less than storybook circumstances.



When they married, she was already pregnant with their first child, and Kennedy was only weeks removed from the divorce of his first wife.



Yet the wedding had the usual Kennedy touch of romance and politics. The ceremony was held aboard an environmental research vessel on the Hudson River, which Robert had been fighting to protect as an attorney with the environmental group, Riverkeeper.



The couple's fourth child -- Robert's sixth overall -- was born while he was serving a 30-day jail sentence for trespassing on U.S. Navy property to protest bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island Vieques.



She had been with the family long enough to become a partner in its rituals of grief.



She was there when the clan buried Michael Kennedy, killed in a New Year's Eve skiing accident in 1997, and John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a plane crash in 1999.



"Mary married into the family. But, believe me, the Kennedys don't marry into your family, you marry into their family. So you're transformed when you marry into their family," said Laurence Leamer, author of the book "The Kennedy Women."



"And she was truly a Kennedy," he added. "She was a Kennedy in her interests. Her husband is one of America's leading environmentalists. So was she."



In recent years, police in Bedford had been called several times to the family's home. Twice in 2007, Robert told police that he was afraid his wife would try to hurt herself, according to records obtained by The Journal News for a 2010 report about the series of disturbances.



Police have said almost nothing about the circumstances of the death, but the Westchester County medical examiner's office said after an autopsy Thursday that she died of asphyxiation due to hanging.



A person familiar with the investigation into her death says that authorities have concluded that her death was a suicide. The person was not authorized to release the information and spoke on condition of anonymity.



Neither side of her family has discussed her manner of death publicly, but released statements noting her "gentle soul and generous spirit," her work advocating environmentally responsible building designs, and her deep love for her children.



"It's a terrible and tragic time for Mary, her family, and, perhaps most importantly, for Bobby and Mary's children, Conor, Finny, Kyra, and Aidan, and for all of us who loved her," said a brother-in-law, former U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. "We appreciate the expressions of condolence and ask for privacy during this difficult time."



Political historian Thomas J. Whalen said he thinks the whole notion of the Kennedys being cursed is largely created by the media, but said that is the perception many Americans have of the family.



"There's no curse. It's just foiled family ambition, risk taking and bad luck," he said. "It's a large family. Things happen in large families, both good and bad."



Mary Kennedy grew up in Hoboken, N.J., the daughter of a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology. She had two brothers and four sisters.



She was active for years with the Boys & Girls Club in Mount Kisco, volunteering for the club's annual fundraising dinner and hosting its Youth of the Year awards at her home.



With one of her children battling severe allergies, she co-founded the Food Allergy Initiative, billed as the world's largest private source of funding for food allergy research, and appeared with her family at its annual ball at Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria

This Day In History

Aug 20 1968
The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.

Aug 20 1979
Social studies teacher Albert Fentress of Poughkeepsie New York lures an 18-year-old boy into his basement, ties him up, murders him, and then cooks and devours the boy's genitals. Fentress is found totally nuts and is sentenced to psychiatric care.

Aug 20 1986
Rather than submit to being fired, part-time letter carrier Pat Sherrill shoots 14 coworkers at his Edmond, Oklahoma post office.

Aug 20 1998
President Clinton orders cruise missile attacks against terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan suspected of making chemical weapons.

Woman Dies When Tractor-Trailer Wheels Hit Car; Police Search for Witness

PORT CHESTER — A 62-year-old woman died on Interstate 95 Tuesday afternoon after two rear wheels of a tractor-trailer flew off and crashed into her car, police said.

Adele Mancuso of Toms River, N.J., and formerly of Larchmont, was driving to her sister's Connecticut home to dog sit about 2:45 p.m., when the trailer's wheels came loose as it exited I-95 onto Interstate 287 at Exit 21. Police said the wheels traveled across three southbound lanes, striking Mancuso's car in the far left northbound lane.

"The tractor-trailer lost the whole rear axle with two wheels attached," state police Investigator Joseph Beccera said. "The entire axle compartment went airborne about 100 yards and crashed into the windshield and roof of the northbound vehicle."

Mancuso, formerly of 1299 Palmer Ave., Larchmont, had recently moved to Toms River to live with her boyfriend. She was killed instantly, Beccera said, noting the axle and wheels that struck her weighed well over 200 pounds and likely caused lethal injuries to her head and neck.

Police said Mancuso's mother, an 84-year-old Constance Casalina of Larchmont, was a passenger in the car and sustained what Beccera described as "miraculously" minor injuries. She was taken to Stamford Hospital, where she was treated for cuts to her arm.

After the crash Tuesday afternoon, the car involved, a Chevrolet Cavalier, was partially covered with a yellow tarpaulin. The roof was almost entirely collapsed and the windshield crushed.

Police said the driver of the tractor-trailer did not stop, but that investigators, using a license plate provided by someone at the scene, were able to locate him Tuesday evening in New Jersey.

Police had not charged the tractor-trailer driver with any wrongdoing in the crash by press time, but were questioning him, Beccera said.

His name was not released.

Police are asking for the public's help in locating a Hispanic male witness who might have stopped the tractor trailer on I-287 and informed the driver of his missing wheels.

Police said the tractor trailer drove off after speaking with the Hispanic driver.

All three northbound lanes were closed for about an hour and a half. The right lane was reopened for travel shortly after 4:30 p.m., but hours later, traffic remained at a near-standstill and was backed up far to the south.

The damaged car was sitting atop a flatbed tow truck at 6:15 p.m. as investigators continued their work. A crowd watched from a nearby overpass.

Patricia Carriere, 41, of Port Chester walked from her home to view the scene from the Grace Church Street overpass.

"Since I live right here, I just came to see," she said. "I just feel bad for the person that died."

Carriere said her husband uses I-95 often as a truck driver and that she has ridden along in his 18-wheeler. In her opinion, it was possible the driver of the tractor-trailer never realized a pair of wheels came off.

"If it was two middle ones," she said, "I don't even think you could notice."

Jose Lopez, an employee with Hannigan's Towing in Port Chester, said he towed Mancuso's Cavalier to the state police barracks in Tarrytown about 7:20 p.m.

Lopez said that during his 15-year career as a tow truck driver, he had seen numerous incidents similar to Tuesday's crash.

"That's why I've got to wake up and kiss my wife every day before I leave for work," he said. "You never know what's going to happen out there."

Shortly before 9 p.m., police reported all northbound lanes on I-95 had been reopened.
If you have information about the crash or the witness police are searching for, please contact the State Police at 914-524-0223 or 914-524-0229.

This Day In History

Aug 15 1969
Woodstock begins on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York. Tickets are $18 for three days of counterculture musical acts, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Sha-Na-Na.

This Day In History

Jun 23 1993
In the middle of the night, Lorena Bobbitt severs her husband John's penis and drives off, casually discarding the organ in a farm field. Surgeons successfully reattach the penis, allowing John to enter the porn industry. The media devotes 1.3 million column-inches of type to the story as both Lorena and John gain celebrity status; consequently, their last name becomes a verb.

Jun 23 1996
A story by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in the Washington Post reveals to the world that First Lady Hillary Clinton employed psychic Jean Houston to help her get in touch with her inner "Eleanor Roosevelt."

Jun 23 1997
Malcolm X's widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, dies after three agonizing weeks in the hospital with third-degree burns covering 80% of her body. The injuries were sustained when her 12-year-old grandson set fire to the family home in Yonkers, New York.

Actress Accused of Snatching Baby from Casting Call

(CNN) -- An aspiring actress remained in jail in Canada on Friday, accused of faking a casting call for babies in an elaborate effort to snatch an infant.

The suspect, identified as Michelle Marie Gopaul, is facing charges of abduction of a minor, Toronto police said in a statement.

"The accused abducted a 1-month old girl from a casting audition," the statement said. "With the assistance of the public, police located the child."

Gopaul, a 24-year-old aspiring actress from New York, allegedly snatched the child on December 30, police said.

After moving to Canada, she allegedly placed an advertisement on Craigslist offering $15,000 for a newborn to act in a Bollywood-style film, CNN affiliate WABC reported.

She posed as a casting director and waited in a Toronto building for parents to arrive, the affiliate said.

Gopaul then allegedly abducted the young girl at the casting call after the girl's parents allowed her to take the child into another room. She fled with the child in a taxicab but the girl was found unharmed hours later, WABC said.

Gopaul's lawyer, Gary Batasar, said his client is supposed to be presumed innocent because the issue has not been decided in a courtroom.

"There is no evidence at this point that she did anything wrong," Batasar said.

Gopaul's next court appearance is scheduled for January 11.

Boy, 12, Shoots and Kills Friend Inside Saratoga County Home

WILTON -- A 12-year-old accidentally shot and killed his friend, also 12, inside a Wilton home on Wednesday, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff James Bowen said the boy was handling his father's handgun when it went off, shooting the other boy, identified as Nicholas Naumkin, in the head.

Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy said the boys believed the gun was not loaded.

Naumkin was rushed to Albany Medical Center where he died late Wednesday night.

Both were students at the Maple Avenue Middle School in the Saratoga Springs City School District. Principal Stuart Byrne is putting together the school's crisis team.

It’s unclear whether the shooter will return to school.

“Nothing we do will bring this family their son back, but we owe it to them to thoroughly investigate this case and that is what Sheriff Bowen and I intend to do,” Murphy said in a media release. “He and I and our staff will be working over the holiday weekend in order to make sure that every aspect of this case is examined and that we come to a conclusion on how to proceed as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Murphy said the boy and his parents are cooperating with the Sheriff's Department.

In a phone conversation with CBS 6, Naumkin's mother said her son was "amazing," a gentle and polite boy who had many friends and was always interested in talking with other people.

Mrs. Naumkin said Nicholas was creative and artistic, and wanted to be an actor like his father Yuri, who was famous in Moscow in the late 1970s before he emigrated to Brooklyn.

Nicholas was born in Brooklyn, but the family decided to move up to Saratoga Springs four and a half years ago because they loved visiting the town: "It was beautiful and safe," said Mrs. Naumkin. "We wanted to get away from all that in Brooklyn," she said, referring to guns and shootings.

Nicholas had just gone to his first school dance earlier this month, said his mother. And he was constantly there for his 7-year-old mildly autistic brother. "He was always there for him," she said. "He would read books to him."

Mrs. Naumkin said she had not yet spoken to the parents of the other boy and that she did not think she would be able to for some time. "My heart goes out to them because they're suffering, too," she said, but she was angry the gun was not properly secured and stored away.

Family members were arriving from across the country to support the Naumkins. Mrs. Naumkin said they still have not notified their families in Russia of Nicholas's death.

"I don't know what to say," Mrs. Naumkin said tearfully. "I'm just numb."

Fingernail Swabs Taken of Beau in NY Bathtub Death

NEW YORK -- Investigators on Friday were taking fingernail swabs from the boyfriend of a fashion designer found dead in a bathtub at a posh hotel in the hopes of finding evidence that may help them determine how she died.

Police obtained a search warrant that also allowed them to take photos of Nicholas Brooks, the 24-year-old son of "You Light Up My Life" songwriter Joseph Brooks. He has been with police since his girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, was discovered around 3 a.m. Thursday at the Soho House hotel. Police were looking for any possible signs of struggle or trauma, said chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Nicholas Brooks has not been charged with a crime and remains cooperative with investigators. He had an attorney, but police said they didn't know the lawyer's name. An attorney for Brooks' father, who is in separate legal trouble, did not know who was representing Nicholas and said the songwriter had no comment on the case.

The medical examiner's office said Friday that toxicology tests were being performed on the body after an initial autopsy was unable to conclusively pinpoint the cause of death. Such tests typically take days.

The 33-year-old Cachay, wearing a black top and underwear, was found submerged in the oval tub, face-up after hotel staff noticed the ceiling below her room was leaking. Investigators said she had some red marks around her neck and a bite mark on her hand.

A bottle of prescription pills was found in the room, but no illegal drugs were found.

------------

NEW YORK (CBS 2) – The boyfriend of a fashion designer found dead at an exclusive Manhattan hotel remains in jail without bail on Sunday morning.

Police are charging 24-year-old Nicholas Brooks with attempted murder and strangulation.

Police said Brooks choked his girlfriend, 33-year-old Sylvie Cachay, and then left her to die in a bathtub inside a room at the Soho hotel.

The victim’s brother said his sister’s death is a tragic loss for everyone who knew her.

“She was a person that touched many, many people. Very kind, incredibly loving, incredibly talented,” Patrick Orlando Cachay said. “She really was a shining star.”

Sources said the autopsy on Cachay was inconclusive. A spokesman for the Medical Examiner’s offices say more testing is needed to determine a cause of death. Toxicology tests are pending.

Bloody Photos Show Scene of Actor's Sword Slay

=-Graphic Photos here-=

NY Post- Tragic mom Yannick Brea fought for her life as her sword-wielding son chased her through their blood-soaked Brooklyn apartment, a look inside the crime scene shows.

The inside of the front door and the front hallway leading to the rear bedrooms are splattered with blood, suggesting she’d tried to fall out the front door but could not.

Bedding and furniture in three of the apartment’s four bedrooms are blood-soaked, indicating that the 55-year-old victim was running for her life from room to room with her son Michael Brea in pursuit during the rampage.

Pools of blood covered the bathroom floor, where cops found her body in a kneeling position.

Family and friends said money woes and a stalled showbiz career likely pushed the stressed-out bit actor over the edge in the days before he hacked his mother to death during the bloody rampage in their Brooklyn home.

"Michael had many money problems and couldn’t pay his bills," his longtime friend and barber Sylvan Benoit said Wednesday. "I think this happened because of stress over money."

Brea, 31, had small roles in "Ugly Betty" and the movie "Step Up 3D" but was not working while living at home with his mother and twin brother Marcel.

He owned a Subway franchise on Broadway in Brooklyn in 2008, but the franchise was taken away by the parent company last year over performance and management problems. Subway had placed liens for unpaid rent of almost $20,000 on the restaurant.

Brea also owed American Express more than $13,000, and New York State was after him for about $2,500 in taxes, court records show.

Neighbor Clinton Clare said Michael Brea rarely worked after losing the Subway franchise, and had no car.

"His mother was supporting him, and he had to use his father’s car to get around," said Clare, one of the first to hear Yannick Brea’s bone-chilling screams about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Dumond said the family believes Michael suffered a "mental breakdown." She said he went to bed early Monday night , refusing his mother’s offer of dinner, after complaining of "a terrible headache."

Hours later, he awoke neighbors in the four-story Prospect Heights apartment building by screaming Biblical passages and demanding that his terrified mother "Repent! Repent! Repent!" before slashing her repeatedly with the three-foot sword as she cried for help.

Cops eventually broke in, Tasered Brea and found his mother’s blood-soaked body kneeling in the bathroom.

Brea has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He remains under psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital.

Pinwits is Right, Hahaha

Facebook Page Prompts Police To Reopen '84 Cold Case

LYNBROOK, NY (WPIX) — Nassau County police say recent postings on the social networking site Facebook have prompted them to reopen a case of a missing child that was left unsolved for more than 20 years.

Kelly Morrissey disappeared on Jun 12, 1984 after buying cigarettes at a Lynbrook gas station. The attendant was the last person who reported seeing the 15-year-old, police said.

During the months following her disappearance, two other girls went missing - one was a friend of Morrissey, police said. Both girls were later found dead. Detective say determined that the young women had been raped and strangled.

In the death of Morrissey's friend, Theresa Fusco, police arrested three suspects who were convicted in her killing, but those convictions were eventually overturned.

Now police have been paying close attention to a Facebook page about Hot Skates Rink in Lynbrook, where Morrissey used to hang out regularly. There have not yet been any specific clues, police say, but they are hopeful that by starting a conversation new information will come to light.

Discussion topics on the rink's Facebook page such as "Former & Current Staff" and "Back In The Day," piqued the interest of authorities several months ago when several Facebook friends brought up the disappearances.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact 1-800-244-TIPS. There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the case's resolution, police say.

No Arrest Yet in Murder of Restaurant Owner

Back in 1973, Joseph Pellicci was a member of a family that owned the Stamford restaurant named Pellicci's Restaurant. He was reported missing on February 4, 1973, his car found abandoned on Wyndover Road.

Ten days later two of his pistols were found on the ice covered Greenwich Reservoir. His body was eventually found on March 2nd in the town of North Salem, New York. He had been shot twice in the head.

It was revealed later that the lead investigator of the Pellicci murder case was on the payroll of a New York Mafia family. He died before he was convicted of various criminal charges. It is not known if the deceased detective had anything to do with this case not being solved. There are two suspects in this homicide, one has since died.

If you have any information about this cold case, please call the Stamford Police Department at 203-977-4417. There is a monetary reward.

Help Find This Endangered Runaway!

KRISTINA IOANNESYAN, Age Now: 14, Missing: 10/29/2010. Missing From KEW-GARDENS, NY.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT: New York City Police Department (New York) 1-212-694-7781.

DOB: Nov 14, 1995	Sex: Female
Missing Date: Oct 29, 2010	Race: White
Age Now: 14	Height: 5'2" (157 cm)
Missing City: KEW-GARDENS	Weight: 114 lbs (52 kg)
Missing State : NY	Hair Color: Brown
Missing Country: United States	Eye Color: Gray
Case Number: NCMC1159353
Circumstances: Kristina was last seen on October 29, 2010.