Month: August 2018

Sexual assault cases in El Paso have increased over the past year, with police connecting the issue to online dating sites and apps. According to the EL Paso Police Department, an 11% increase of reported sexual assaults has occurred citywide and is asking for the public to be more cautious when using online dating sites

“Juliet, Naked ” is a charming and smart little film about early middle age, second chances, regrets and the intoxicating freedom of written correspondence that’s nearly impossible to explain without either spoiling something or being willfully misleading. That’s actually one of its attributes: Everything only makes sense in context of everything else. “Juliet, Naked” has

A St. Louis couple has been charged in the drug overdose death of their 8-month-old daughter. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 52-year-old Robert Hasenfratz and his girlfriend, 27-year-old Samantha Poppleton, were charged Tuesday with child endangerment resulting in a child’s death. Hasenfratz also is charged with illegal gun possession. Bond is set at $150,000

A family of seven, including five young children, died on a remote Oregon road in a head-on collision on their way to an end-of-summer vacation in Las Vegas, a family member said Wednesday. Erika Carter Boquet, 29, was driving her 2016 Toyota 4 Runner eastbound on Oregon Highway 78 when an oncoming vehicle veered into

Texas on Wednesday issued its first letter grade academic accountability ratings for school districts, with only about 1 percent statewide receiving failing marks and about 10 times that getting ‘As.’ EDITOR’S NOTE: Sunday night on ABC-7 Xtra, the superintendents for El Paso ISD, Socorro ISD and Ysleta ISD told ABC-7 their respective school districts all

Republicans on Wednesday condemned a poster by Pearl Jam that shows the White House in flames and a bald eagle pecking at a skeleton they say is meant to depict President Donald Trump. The National Republican Senate Committee compared it to the now-infamous photo of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a fake decapitated Trump head. The

Three members of an extended family who are accused of child abuse at a ramshackle desert compound in New Mexico are awaiting release. The Taos County courthouse has heightened security Wednesday over threats against the judge who cleared the way for the defendants to get out of jail. State District Judge Sarah Backus’ decision has

New Mexico’s top land boss has rejected a proposal from the federal government to settle an easement dispute over land along the U.S.-Mexico. Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn contends the government never received authorization to access state trust land that borders the international boundary and hasn’t compensated the state for using the property. After months of

Las Cruces Police said Tuesday the man shot and killed by a Las Cruces Police officer attacked a female officer with a baseball bat even after he was tasered by the officer. The Las Cruces Police Department held a news conference Wednesday morning to address the officer-involved shooting. Just after 10:30 p.m. on August 3rd,

After approximately 10,000 work hours, New Mexico State University’s Aggies Without Limits student organization built a suspended pedestrian bridge in Utuado, Puerto Rico, this summer. Aggies Without Limits, a student nonprofit organization in the College of Engineering founded in 2007, chooses a local project and international project each year. The group’s mission is to help

A 6-year-old Juarez boy who was reported missing was found dead, according to a news release from the Chihuahua State Attorney General. The grandmother of David Rafael Santillán Vargas sent him to a store, but he never returned. The grandmother went to look for him and learned that the store was closed. A week later,

Rep. Beto O’Rourke and other local and military officials break ground for a new Veteran’s Affairs mental health facility Wednesday morning. The facility is part of a years-long collaborative effort by O’Rourke and local veterans, community health providers and government officials to address the quality of El Paso’s V.A. system. O’Rourke commissioned an independent report

Police in Horizon City are looking for a robbery suspect who targeted a Dollar General store on Aug. 13. The police department released video of a man holding up the clerk and another employee at the store on the 14000 block of Horizon Boulevard. The man waved a knife at the employees and demanded money,

El Paso and Las Cruces have often been touted as destinations for those looking for a new place to spend their golden years. ABC-7 reported in May that US News and World Report ranked the Sun City #5 out of the 100 best places to retire in the nation, and that USA Today also ranked

Singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes will perform in El Paso on Oct. 13, 2018. The 20-year-old Canadian singer announcing Tuesday morning that his self-titled tour will stop at the Don Haskins Center to promote his third album. Pre-sale tickets go on sale Thursday Aug. 16 at 10 a.m. Tickets for the general public go on sale Friday,

The Burges Mustangs might be a young team this year, but their head coach says that could end up paying off in the end. “I think our strengths and our weaknesses are the same,” said coach James Routledge. “We’ve got a bunch of young guys that don’t have a lot of experience. But that’s our

NMSU running back Jason Huntley was named to the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award watch list Tuesday. That award is given to the nation’s top offensive player who was either born in Texas, graduated from a Texas high school, or played at a junior college in the state. Players are recognized by a selection committee

Just in: A local architect confirms two new restaurants should open by next summer! Scroll to the end of the article for the details. For ten years, a commercial property on Amador Avenue and Main Street in Las Cruces has been fenced off, under construction and seemingly abandoned to the public. “It looks terrible,” said

New Mexico Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Michelle Lujan-Grisham was in Sunland Park Tuesday for a tour of the US-Mexico border. During her visit, Lujan-Grisham told ABC-7 low paying jobs, coupled with the high cost of child care and housing, is a recipe for disaster. The candidate condemned what she called broken public assistance programs that make

Fancy a tarantula taco for a cool $27? Not so fast, Mexican authorities say. A Mexico City market restaurant recently put the arachnids on its menu and posted a video on Facebook showing a chef torching one until blackened. The only problem: The Mexican red rump tarantula is a protected species. The federal environmental protection

A Georgia congressional candidate convicted of drunken driving was ordered by a judge Tuesday to spend the next six months in jail – a sentence that would keep the candidate locked up long past Election Day. It was unclear what would become of Democrat Steven Foster’s campaign after he was sentenced by a Superior Court

Hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children – and possibly many more – since the 1940s, and senior church officials, including a man who is now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., systematically covered up the abuse, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday. The “real number” of abused children

Prosecutors are seeking a court hearing after the suspect in a deadly shooting at a Tennessee Waffle House was deemed presently incompetent for trial and in need of hospitalization. Nashville Deputy District Attorney General Roger Moore filed the motion in 29-year-old Travis Reinking’s case Tuesday. The filing says a mental health institute notified the judge

Governor Susana Martinez told ABC-7 Tuesday the five suspects from a northern New Mexico compound facing child abuse charges should not be released from jail. “The dangerous accused criminals in the Taos compound case should never have been released on bail yesterday,” Martinez told ABC-7 by phone, reading a statement on her Facebook page. The

Court documents say a 6-year-old girl found dead in her Rio Rancho home last weekend was discovered on bloody sheets with marijuana and medications near her body. Rio Rancho police say they’re investigating the death as a homicide. They say an autopsy will be done to determine how Ariana Romeo was killed. No arrests have

The group seeking to protect hundreds of acres of land in Northwest El Paso from development submitted a second petition with hundreds of signatures. El Paso City Council recently voted to approve Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 12 in order to attract developers to the Northwest El Paso desert. The TIRZ would make it easier to

Police are trying to determine a motive in an Ohio doctor’s slaying that was followed by his two sons killing themselves during a standoff with SWAT officers. Beachwood Police Chief Gary Haba said Tuesday police believe Dr. Richard Warn was killed last week by one or both of his sons. Haba says investigators and the

Police in Albuquerque say a fugitive who’s suspected in a murder case has been arrested in Cibola County. The U.S. Marshals Service was the lead agency on Tuesday’s apprehension of 30-year-old Matthew Joe, coordinating with police homicide detectives to locate him at a family member’s house. Joe was considered a fugitive after he was released

A former Virginia Tech student pleaded guilty Tuesday to concealing the body of a slain 13-year-old girl, but still faces trial on a more serious charge of being an accessory to the teen’s killing. Natalie Keepers is scheduled to go on trial in September, accused of being an accessory before the fact in the killing

Officials closed a rural Oklahoma school system this week after the sheriff began investigating what he determined were online threats against a transgender student. Bryan County Sheriff Johnny Christian said Tuesday his office started investigating over the weekend after adults made threatening comments on Facebook about a 12-year-old transgender girl using a public girls’ bathroom