Coroner: Teen survived crash, died after fire truck ran over her
Coroner: Teen survived crash, died after fire truck ran over her
SAN MATEO, Calif. — As the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 burned, Ye Meng Yuan was lying on the ground just 30 feet away, buried by the firefighting foam rescue workers were spraying to douse the flames.
No one knows exactly how the 16-year-old Chinese student got to that spot, but officials say one thing is clear now: She somehow survived the crash.
And in the chaotic moments that followed — flames devouring the fuselage, those aboard escaping by emergency slides, flight attendants frantically cutting away seat belts to free passengers — a fire truck ran over Yuan, killing her.
The new details — released Friday by the coroner’s office — compounded the tragedy for her family and confirmed the growing suspicions that emergency workers have had since soon after the July 6 crash: One of the three who died did so by rescuers’ actions.
“There’s not a lot of words to describe how badly we feel, how sorry we feel,” said San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White.
Police find four men held captive in ‘deplorable conditions’
HOUSTON — Four men found living in “deplorable conditions” in a Houston garage on Friday told police that they were being held captive after being lured by promises of food and cigarettes so that their captor could cash their public-assistance checks, authorities said.
Three of the men were malnourished and taken to a hospital after being discovered by officers responding to a 911 call about the home, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. Sgt. Steven Murdock described the living conditions as like a “dungeon.”
Investigators were still trying to determine how long the men lived there, but they said it may have been weeks.
Silva said the men told investigators they were forced to live in the garage — which included just one chair, no bed and a possibly malfunctioning air conditioner — so their captor could cash their assistance checks. She said the men were “given scraps to eat.”
One person was taken into custody.
Man who beat five members of ex-wife’s family to death gets life
LINCOLN, Ill. — A man convicted of beating five members of his ex-wife’s family to death in their small-town Illinois home was sentenced Friday to five consecutive life terms.
Christopher Harris, 34, was convicted in May after a monthlong trial. Harris admitted killing Dillen Constant, but claimed he did so in self-defense after discovering the 14-year-old boy slaughtering his own family. Harris reiterated his innocence on Friday when making a brief statement before being sentenced.
Authorities: DNA test links Boston Strangler suspect, last victim
BOSTON — DNA tests confirm that the man who once claimed to be the Boston Strangler did kill the woman believed to be the serial killer’s last victim and probably was responsible for the deaths of the other victims, authorities said Friday.
Albert DeSalvo admitted to killing Mary Sullivan and 10 other women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964 but later recanted. He was later killed in prison.
The DNA finding “leaves no doubt that Albert DeSalvo was responsible for the brutal murder of Mary Sullivan” and it was “most likely” that he also was the Boston Strangler, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.
Eleven Boston-area women between the ages of 19 and 85 were sexually assaulted and killed between 1962 and 1964.
Authorities said recently that new technology let them test semen left at the crime scene of Sullivan’s death using DNA from a living relative of DeSalvo. It produced a match with DeSalvo that excluded 99.9 percent of suspects.
By wire sources