BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — Police in an Omaha suburb say they’ve been unable to find a woman whose husband says he killed her.
Bellevue police Capt. Tom Dargy says the 37-year-old man told officers what he’d done after surrendering Tuesday evening. Investigators obtained warrants to search the man’s home, but they didn’t find the woman or her body.
The man was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder. Court records don’t show that he’s been formally charged.
LUSHTON, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while jogging along a road in York County.
The York County Sheriff’s Department says 55-year-old Mark Kliewer was struck around 6:25 a.m. Wednesday, about a half-mile (1 kilometer) east of Lushton.
Sheriff Dale Radcliff says the vehicle driver immediately called 911 about the accident. Radcliff says the driver reported that he didn’t see Kliewer on the road. The sheriff didn’t disclose the driver’s name.
Kliewer lived in rural Lushton.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say a 20-year-old California woman has died after being hit by a car on the northwestern edge of Omaha’s Creighton University campus, where she was a student.
Omaha police say Vindhay Puttagunta, of Folsom, California, was walking with a man along a street around 1 a.m. when he sat down on a retaining wall. Police say Puttagunta lay down in the middle of the street in an attempt to get the man’s attention. Investigators say she was still lying in the street when a sedan ran over her without stopping.
Puttagunta was taken in extremely critical condition to Nebraska Medical Center, where she died.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A day after announcing that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions would visit Omaha this week, the Justice Department now says that Sessions will not make the trip to Omaha.
Sessions had been set to appear with law enforcement officials in Omaha on Thursday for an announcement about plans to combat the opioid crisis.
A spokesman for the office of U.S. Attorney for Nebraska said Wednesday that Sessions had a family emergency, keeping him from traveling to Omaha. Officials did not elaborate on the nature of the family emergency.
The news conference will still be held Thursday, with Gov. Pete Ricketts, U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Joe Kelly and Robert Patterson, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, attending.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha father has been arrested, accused of leaving his two young sons in a van overnight while he got drunk in a bar and left with a woman.
Omaha police say they were called early Saturday morning about a van left running in the Benson Library parking lot. Arriving officers found two boys, ages 4 and 5, and a dog in the van.
Police say their father, 28-year-old Charles Bibbs, had left them there around midnight Friday to go to a bar. Bibbs told police he planned to be at the bar for a couple of hours, but forgot about the boys and spent the night with a woman he met. A strong thunderstorm swept the area while the boys were alone in the van. Police say they were cold and hungry, but otherwise unharmed.
Just hours before leaving the boys, Bibbs had been released from prison for a fourth-offense drunken driving conviction.
He is being held on $75,000 bail on two counts of felony child abuse.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An automated shuttle is expected to arrive soon to carry people around Lincoln’s Haymarket area.
The Navya shuttle — a loaner — will be in the city through early August, part of a study on using the technology downtown in the future.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the general public will be able to take rides in the Haymarket after initial testing at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
Lincoln is able to test the shuttle because of a $100,000 grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Lincoln was chosen earlier this year as one of 35 Champion Cities by
Bloomberg as finalists in the 2018 Mayors Challenge. The nationwide competition encourages city leaders to develop bold ideas in meeting challenges.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies have seized more than 18 pounds of fentanyl and nearly three pounds of heroin near Omaha.
Officials say the seizure happened Friday after making contact with a person that morning. Officials say a 44-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to deliver, criminal conspiracy and failure to have a drug tax stamp.
Officials declined to release details on the specific location and nature of the contact and arrest, citing “the sensitive nature of the on-going investigation.”
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to be in Omaha later this week to appear with law enforcement officials for an announcement about plans to combat the opioid crisis.
Sessions is scheduled to appear at a press conference Thursday in Omaha with Robert Patterson, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The fight against opioids has made recent ripples in Nebraska, with the seizure of 120 pounds of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Sessions is dealing with more than the opioid problem. The nation’s top prosecutor has endured blistering criticism from the man who appointed him, President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Trump blamed Sessions for allowing a special counsel’s Russia probe to continue, tweeting that he would have “picked someone else” for the top job at the Justice Department had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the probe.
FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — A Fremont man charged in connection with several fires set in Dodge County has taken a plea deal.
Zachary Wanamaker pleaded no contest Monday to four counts after prosecutors dropped others. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on July 25.
Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass told a Dodge County district judge at the hearing that the plea deal doesn’t include an agreement on a sentencing recommendation so far.
A co-defendant, 18-year-old Connor Miller, of Hooper, is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.
PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — A 42-year-old Nebraska man will serve four years of probation and 25 days in jail for helping his online girlfriend kill herself last summer.
Matthew Stubbendieck was sentenced Monday in Cass County to probation instead of the maximum penalty of two years in prison.
He will serve five days in jail every August during probation over the anniversary of the death of Alicia Wilemon-Sullivan of Orange City, Florida.
Stubbendieck was convicted in April. Prosecutors say he did nothing to stop 38-year-old Wilemon-Sullivan from slashing her wrists in a wooded area about 25 miles southwest of Omaha.
Stubbendieck reported Wilemon-Sullivan had killed herself and led authorities to her body Aug. 5.
Stubbendieck told investigators he believed Wilemon-Sullivan had stage-four cancer, but an autopsy found no cancerous masses or tumors.
