Author: Darren Smith

The chief executive of one of Austin’s most prominent tech venture capital firms has been killed after the private jet he was travelling in crashed on a Texas highway and split in two, bursting into flames in scenes witnesses described as being “like part of a movie.” Joshua Baer, 48, the CEO and founder of Capital Factory, was identified as one of two people killed when the Netjets aircraft came down on Texas State Highway Loop 20 in Laredo at around 10pm on Tuesday. The plane had taken off from Los Cabos International Airport in Mexico and was bound for…

A Long Island architect who led a secret double life as one of America’s most prolific serial killers has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after admitting in court to the murders of eight women, most of them sex workers whose remains lay undiscovered for years on a desolate stretch of highway near New York City. Rex Heuermann, 62, of Massapequa Park, appeared before a judge in Riverhead, New York, on Wednesday wearing a black suit and blue shirt, and confirmed what investigators had come to believe — that he had strangled his victims and dismembered some of…

Luigi Mangione will assert a psychiatric defence in his state murder trial over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, a judge confirmed at a hearing on Wednesday, as the case that captivated the world moves closer to its September trial date. Mangione, 28, faces state murder charges in New York in connection with the killing of Thompson, 50, who was shot dead on the streets of New York City in December 2024. The killing sparked a days-long international manhunt that ended with Mangione’s arrest at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He has pleaded not guilty to all…

A 70-year-old Missouri woman has admitted trading her foster daughter to a family in Texas in exchange for a monkey because the pair were not getting along, in a case that has exposed a devastating catalogue of alleged abuse and a failure by authorities to act on hundreds of complaints stretching back years. Brenda Deutsch, of Winfield, took a plea deal on Monday, agreeing to plead guilty to one count of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree. She faces up to seven years in prison, with her case due to be reviewed on 21 July. The…

A glamorous Russian influencer who became a household name after appearing on national television as a rape victim faces up to six years in prison after being arrested for allegedly selling explicit content on OnlyFans, as Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on what the Kremlin calls anti-traditional values claims another high-profile target. Diana Shurygina, 27, was detained after returning to Moscow from an extended stay in Bali, with reports suggesting she attempted to flee back to Indonesia before being stopped. Law enforcement officers raided her apartment, seizing cameras, gadgets and filming equipment. She has since been placed under house arrest while investigators…

A massive fire has engulfed a Paris warehouse, sending towering plumes of black smoke visible across the region and prompting a major emergency response, with around 150 firefighters and 50 vehicles deployed to tackle the blaze. The inferno broke out at around 2pm at the Vignes industrial park on Rue Henri Gautier in Bobigny, a commune in the north-east of the French capital. The fire took hold of a 75,000 square foot two-storey warehouse housing approximately ten furniture and equipment companies, rapidly engulfing the entire building. Shocking footage circulating on social media shows the blaze spewing vast towers of black…

A teenager who started running a cannabis supply network across a city while still about to sit his GCSE exams has been unmasked as the ringleader of what a judge described as a family drug operation involving his girlfriend and her father and siblings. Jack Barrett, now 21, was just 14 years old when he established the illicit business that would grow to span the city of Norwich, operating for more than four years between June 2019 and October 2023. When police eventually seized his phone, they found a staggering 47,000 drug-related messages — a figure that laid bare the…

A worried mother’s call to police in rural Ohio four days before Donald Trump’s 80th birthday celebrations at the White House set in motion an FBI investigation that uncovered an elaborate plot to use explosive drones and concealed rooftop snipers to massacre high-profile guests at the president’s UFC birthday event on the South Lawn. Tycen Proper, 19, from Danbury, Ohio, north of Columbus, had been spending his graduation money on guns and body armour and talking to online contacts about “recons” and “hit and run missions.” His parents alerted Knox County police after finding maps of Washington exchanged via text…

Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather is facing two felony charges after allegedly using a bad cheque to purchase a $200,000 luxury watch from a Las Vegas boutique, according to Nevada court records seen by ESPN. The 49-year-old, who retired with a perfect 50-0 professional record and earned an estimated $1.1 to $1.2 billion across his career, is charged with theft and intent to defraud following an incident at Gold and Beyond, a Las Vegas resale boutique, in December 2024. Mayweather allegedly wrote a cheque for $200,000 drawn on a Wells Fargo Bank account, but the account reportedly contained “insufficient money, property…

A former healthcare worker has been formally cautioned after attempting to sell the Princess of Wales’s private medical records, the data protection watchdog has confirmed. The employee, who worked at the London Clinic where the Princess underwent surgery, tried to sell highly sensitive personal information for financial gain, the Information Commissioner’s Office said on Wednesday. The ICO said it had carried out a full assessment under the Code for Crown Prosecutors and its own Prosecution Policy before issuing a formal caution to the now-former healthcare professional for an offence under section 170(5) of the Data Protection Act 2018. In a…