ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida is moving ahead with a more than $20 billion effort to widen the entire 320-mile Florida’s Turnpike mainline, a project state officials say is now about 55% complete. Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the Turnpike expansion Sept. 29 in Orlando, along with nearly $8.5 million for improvementsContinue Reading
MARIANNA, Fla. – A three-day enforcement operation targeting registered sex offenders and predators in Jackson County ended with 21 arrests and the seizure of 18 cellphones, including one that authorities said contained more than 1,500 files of child sexual abuse material. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Missing Persons andContinue Reading
CANTONMENT, Fla. – A cybertip about files uploaded to a social media account led Florida investigators to a Cantonment home, where a 30-year-old man was arrested on 20 felony charges involving child sexual abuse material. Michael Hall Jr. was arrested Sept. 10 after Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents executedContinue Reading
MILTON, Fla. – A 64-year-old Milton man was arrested after investigators said he spent weeks communicating online with undercover agents posing as a juvenile girl and offered money for a sexually explicit video. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Kenneth Daughtery on Sept. 10 following an investigation that beganContinue Reading
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – For three days, 33-year-old Aaron Lamar Platts exchanged sexually explicit messages online with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Then he got in his car and drove from Duval County to St. Johns County to meet her. There was no 14-year-old waiting for him. TheContinue Reading
PANAMA CITY, Fla. – A Panama City couple has been arrested after investigators said two children reported being threatened with a sledgehammer and having their belongings destroyed during an incident at their home. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Keith Hall, 42, and Maggie Gurley, 39, on Sept. 30 followingContinue Reading
PALM COAST, Fla. – A 47-year-old woman was shot multiple times by her estranged husband before he apparently took his own life Wednesday night at a Palm Coast home, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Dawn Estrella, 47, and Rakim-Shakur Brooks, 55, were found dead inside a residence onContinue Reading
DIXIE COUNTY, Fla. – A 31-year-old Illinois man has been arrested following an investigation into his communications and reported meetings with a juvenile in Florida, according to the Dixie County Sheriff’s Office. Victor De La Cruz was charged with felony transmission of material harmful to minors to a minor byContinue Reading
PALATKA, Fla. – Four people were arrested after a traffic stop involving a driver with a suspended license led Putnam County deputies to methamphetamine, cocaine and suspected fentanyl, including drugs authorities said were concealed inside milkshakes. Deputies stopped a vehicle driven by Rocky Shuman, 41, of Keystone Heights after heContinue Reading
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Three men have been convicted in the 2017 shooting death of 23-year-old Hawthorne resident Christin Cassels, bringing a yearslong Alachua County investigation that eventually relied on newly developed cellphone and geofencing data to a jury verdict. Following a weeklong trial, 38-year-old Nikenson Perin was found guilty ofContinue Reading