Nick VanderWal was a retired cop in Florida who couldn’t let go of his unsolved cases even decades later – especially a 1992 rape by an armed burglar who tied up his victim and placed duct tape over her eyes during an attack so awful that judges later called it …
Read More »Mystery solved? Feds name man they say lived under another’s identity for 3 decades
TAMPA, Fla. – Who was pretending to be Kelvin Johnson, for more than three decades? Even serving 25 years in a New York prison for murder under what prosecutors say was a stolen identity? The mystery of the bizarre identity case that spanned the Eastern seaboard is a step closer …
Read More »Protesters sang and prayed outside Florida State Prison as Donald Dillbeck was executed
Schoolchildren, teachers, anti-death penalty advocates and attorneys gathered across the street from the Florida State Prison in Raiford Thursday protesting the execution of David Dillbeck, a convicted murderer.
Read More »Gainesville Police Advisory Council plans to revisit the future of K-9 Unit
The Policy Advisory Council of Gainesville met Wednesday night to discuss the future of the Gainesville Police Department K-9 Unit. It was held after the mauling of Terrell Bradley by a police dog in July 2022 and the reinstatement of the unit on Friday. “As the K-9 Unit returns to …
Read More »GPD K-9 unit resumes regular duty following hiatus
The Gainesville Police Department announced in a press release Monday it reinstated its K-9 unit last Friday after a monthlong hiatus to address staff restructuring. The unit was previously under investigation following an incident during a traffic stop in July 2022. Terrell Bradley, a Gainesville man who fled after officers …
Read More »Gainesville residents hopeful of University Avenue becoming safer after $8M grant
Addison Sutton, 22, was making her way to Midtown for a night out with friends one evening in 2022. While waiting at the intersection of Southwest 13th Street and West University Avenue, she saw lights from a private ambulance service heading west on University Avenue. She stopped and waited to …
Read More »Gainesville police host rape aggression defense classes
Fear. It’s a feeling with which Katherine Mathis is very familiar. With the help of Gainesville Police Department’s Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, classes, she no longer feels afraid. “I was a victim of some tragic violence when I was 13 years old,” she said. “For many, many years, I …
Read More »Gainesville church helps prisoners find hope behind bars
Plain walls surround Lynn Paden as she says a prayer at the Alachua County Jail, hand-in-hand with a prisoner. The prisoner is the daughter of a member of the University City Church of Christ (UCCC) in Gainesville. Before seeing this woman, Paden had never stepped foot into jail and was …
Read More »Five years and 17 lost lives: South Florida still mourns the MSD shooting
Gina Montalto lost her life five years ago during the Majory Stoneman Douglas school shooting. Her father, Tony, said on Tuesday during the five-year memorial of the event that she was loving, caring, kind and compassionate. She was a straight-A student, a girl scout, and a member of the color …
Read More »Former elected official gets pretrial diversion in burglary case
A former member of the Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation Board agreed to a pretrial diversion Wednesday morning. Daniel “Danny” Gordon, 41, held the District Four seat on the board and was charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor larceny in September. He was caught on surveillance video in July …
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