Police reviewing missing woman's 911 call

Cleveland officials are investigating the handling of a call from kidnapping victim Amanda Berry to 911 on Monday.

Berry and two other women had been held captive in a Cleveland home for nearly a decade but were able to escape on Monday evening.

In a statement published on the department’s blog, Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin L. Flask acknowledged the public’s criticism of the dispatcher’s handling of the call for help from Berry. The call was released to the media on Monday, shortly after police revealed the women were found alive.

During the 911 call, Berry tells a dispatcher: “Hello, police, help me! I'm Amanda Berry … I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for ten years, and ... I'm here, I'm free now.”

The dispatcher, after verifying Berry’s whereabouts, tells the kidnap victim to talk to the police when they arrive. The dispatcher also tells Berry, who was pleading for police to come immediately, “We're going to send them as soon as we get a car open.”

And Berry responded, “No, I need them now before he [her alleged captor, Ariel Castro] gets back.”

Flask wrote that while the dispatcher followed department policies and procedures, “We have noted some concerns, which will be the focus of our review, including the call-taker’s failure to remain on the line with Ms. Berry until police arrived on scene.”

The dispatcher was not identified in the statement.

During a press conference on Tuesday, police officials said officers arrived at the home where the women were held captive within minutes of Berry’s call. When police arrived, they found Berry with her 6-year-old daughter, as well as Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

Berry, 27, had been missing since April 2003, when she was 16. DeJesus, 23, had been missing since 2004, when she was 14. Knight had been missing since 2002, when she was 20, according to police.

Police commended Berry as “a real hero” for breaking away from the home, calling police, and enabling the other women to escape, too.

Three brothers—Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50—have been arrested and are expected to be charged on Wednesday.

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Three women, missing for a decade, found alive

Three women, two of them missing for a decade since they were teens in Cleveland, have been found alive, according to police.

A 52-year-old man has been arrested, police say. The women were being treated at the hospital. One of the women reportedly had a baby since she came up missing, according to reports.

One of the women, Amanda Berry, was last heard from in 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from the Burger King restaurant where she worked, reported the Cleveland TV station WEWS. She was to turn 17 the day after she disappeared.

The other woman, Gina DeJesus, was 14 when she went missing on April 2, 2004. She was walking home from school.

The third woman, Michelle Knight, 32, was missing since she was 20.

Ariel Castro, the owner of the home where the women were found, has been arrested, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Live TV reports showed hundreds of people and media gathered outside the Cleveland home, where the women were found. 

Police have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.

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Women missing for a decade found alive

Three women, two of them missing for a decade since they were teens in Cleveland, have been found alive, according to police.

A 52-year-old man has been arrested, police say. The women were being treated at the hospital. One of the women reportedly had a baby since she came up missing, according to reports.

One of the women, Amanda Berry, was last heard from in 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from the Burger King restaurant where she worked, reported the Cleveland TV station WEWS. She was to turn 17 the day after she disappeared.

The other woman, Gina DeJesus, was 14 when she went missing on April 2, 2004. She was walking home from school.

The third woman, Michelle Knight, 32, was missing since she was 20.

Ariel Castro, the owner of the home where the women were found, has been arrested, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Live TV reports showed hundreds of people and media gathered outside the Cleveland home, where the women were found. 

Police have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday.

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Kidnapped Syrian bishops still missing: church sources

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen on Monday are still missing, church sources in Damascus and Aleppo said on Wednesday, contradicting a report that the men had been freed.

A source at the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo said the bishops had not been released and he was unaware of any contact with their abductors. At the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, a source also said there was no indication they had been freed.

Greek Orthodox archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were seized near the northern commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo, which is contested by rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

Authorities blamed the abduction on a "terrorist group", the label they usually give to anti-Assad rebels, but opposition fighters in the province denied they had kidnapped the two and said they were working for their release and trying to find out who had taken them.

The bishops were the most senior church figures caught up in the fight between Assad's forces and rebels trying to end four decades of family rule by Assad and his late father.

The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people and frightened minority groups as the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels gain ground in northern Syria, where Salafi and jihadi groups, including the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, have emerged as among the most formidable insurgent formations.

(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Syrian church: 2 abducted priests still missing

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian church officials say they have no information on the whereabouts of two bishops who were kidnapped in northern Syria.

The Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Bishop, Tony Yazigi, had told reporters on Tuesday that the bishops, both based in the northern city of Aleppo, had been released.

But later on Tuesday, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus said in a statement that it had not received "any official document indicating the (bishops') release." The statement was posted on the Patriarchate's website.

Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were abducted on Monday while traveling outside Aleppo. Gunmen pulled them from their car and shot and killed their driver.

It was not clear who abducted the priests and who is holding them.

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1 dead, 1 missing in Seattle avalanches

SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash. (AP) — A woman who had been buried in five feet of snow has died, and one man was still missing Sunday morning after a pair of spring avalanches struck separate groups hiking in the mountains each of Seattle, authorities in Washington state said.

Sgt. Katie Larson, with the King County Sheriff's Office, said a team of rescuers worked through the night in blizzard-like conditions to carry the female snowshoer off the mountain just after midnight.

She was not moving and had been in and out of consciousness. Medics confirmed that she had died when they reached the base of the mountain, Larson said.

"The conditions yesterday were horrific," Larson said Sunday. "It took 25 rescuers about five to six hours" to bring her off the mountain in a sled.

The woman, whose identity was not known, had been hiking with her dog near a group of a dozen other people Saturday afternoon when an avalanche hit Red Mountain near Snoqualmie Pass east of Seattle.

She had been buried in five feet of snow but was dug out with the help of a group of a dozen snowshoers, who had also been caught in the avalanche.

Members of the group told authorities that it took them 45 minutes to find the woman. They dug her out of five feet of snow. "They did their best to try to warm her up," Larson said.

Meanwhile, the search for a 60-year-old hiker who was swept down the mountain in a separate avalanche at Granite Mountain Saturday was suspended indefinitely due to the poor weather conditions.

"There was a heavy snow dump last night, and conditions are still very hazardous," Larson said.

The man, from Kent, Wash., was with two other friends when the avalanche carried them more than 1,200 feet down the mountain. The two friends suffered injuries that described as not life-threatening. One of them was taken to a hospital, but Larson did not know his condition.

The avalanches occurred as heavy snow fell near Snoqualmie Pass.

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Hope not lost for missing for Calif. hikers

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. (AP) — Rescuers combing Southern California's Cleveland National Forest for two lost hikers said late Wednesday they weren't giving up hope the pair would be found alive despite a fruitless third day of searching.

There is no evidence of foul play and authorities believe the teens are in the area, in part because a 911 call made before their cell phone died was traced to a cell tower near the location, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. John Muir.

"Their probability for survival is good," he said, adding that the nights have been mild and the days not too hot.

"We're not stopping until we find them."

So far, nothing has been found in the area where mountain bikers glimpsed what they believed to be a light in heavy brush Tuesday night off of a trail, he said.

The aerial search was to end at nightfall Wednesday but would resume Thursday at first light, Muir said.

Nicholas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack, 18, were last heard from Sunday night when they called for help on a cellphone. The phone's battery later died.

The two are believed to have gone off trail near Holy Jim Trail, a tree-lined dirt path along a creek that leads to a waterfall and is popular with day hikers.

In the call, they said they were about a mile from their car, which was parked at a trailhead, but rescuers have expanded the search.

"When you're disoriented because you're out of breath and tired and you think you're 1 mile away, you could be potentially 3 or 4 miles away," Muir said. "There's a lot of ground to cover."

It was unclear whether the lost hikers carried water and Kyndall's father, Russ Jack, said he worried that after three days the pair might be dehydrated. But he still has hope.

"So at this point everybody's still upbeat, optimistic about finding the kids in good shape and alive," he told TV reporters.

About 50 searchers, some on horseback and aided by dogs, moved back and forth through chest-high brush across mountain ridges.

The U.S. Forest Service gave permission to cut brush on a mountain peak to land a helicopter, which allowed LA County sheriff's personnel and two dogs to be taken to a canyon northwest of the pair's car, Orange County Sheriff's Department Lt. Erin Guidice told the Los Angeles Times.

That area was chosen because of the nearby cell phone tower that picked up the 911 call, she said.

Four helicopters also dropped search and rescue teams in the forest all day Wednesday, Muir said.

Jack's car was left in a parking area. Her mother drew a message on the dusty windshield that read: "Kyndall - we r looking wont stop love you mom" and signed it with a heart. Jack's family towed away the car Tuesday night, KABC-TV reported.

The area is in a section of the national forest in the Santa Ana Mountains, which lie along the border of Orange and Riverside counties southeast of Los Angeles. The trail ranges in elevation from about 2,000 feet to about 4,000 feet.

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Pa. church's missing pipe organ found; organist says he removed it for winter safekeeping

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - A Pittsburgh Roman Catholic church says the mystery of its missing pipe organ has been solved.

Police said Monday the church's former organist confessed he removed it last week for safekeeping.

Worshippers had struggled to understand how and why anyone would take the massive 200-pipe instrument from St. Justin's, which closed last month after merging with another church.

Authorities say the organist had a key to the building in the city's Mount Washington neighbourhood and was worried the organ would be damaged by the cold of winter.

The church's pastor, Father Michael Stumpf, says taking the organ was an imprudent and terrible mistake but not a criminal one so the church is choosing to forgive and not press charges.

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Missing Pa. church pipe organ found; all forgiven

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh Roman Catholic church says the mystery of its missing pipe organ has been solved.

Police said Monday the church's former organist confessed he removed it last week for safekeeping.

Worshippers had struggled to understand how and why anyone would take the massive 200-pipe instrument from St. Justin's, which closed last month after merging with another church.

Authorities say the organist had a key to the building in the city's Mount Washington neighborhood and was worried the organ would be damaged by the cold of winter.

The church's pastor, Father Michael Stumpf, says taking the organ was an imprudent and terrible mistake but not a criminal one so the church is choosing to forgive and not press charges.

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California couple feared missing in Peru turn up on safe on river boat

LIMA (Reuters) - A young California couple feared by family to have been abducted while on a cycling trip through Peru have safely surfaced on a river boat headed for Ecuador, surprised to learn they were subjects of an international search, the Peruvian government said on Tuesday.

"The American tourists are continuing to enjoy their trip in the Peruvian Amazon," the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said in a statement, adding that a national police official had spoken with the couple and found them to be "in good health."

Garrett Hand and his girlfriend, Jamie Neal, both 25, had last been heard from by friends and relatives about a month ago, according to co-workers and a statement issued on Monday by the U.S. Embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital.

The embassy said then that Peruvian authorities had mounted a search for the pair, who are residents of Oakland, California.

The couple were said to have vanished while en route to Lima from Cusco, in the mountainous southeastern Peruvian interior near the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu, an area where U.S. citizens have been warned by the embassy of kidnapping risks.

That advisory last month was widely interpreted as linked to efforts by a remnant band of Maoist Shining Path rebels to repel a government push to regain control of jungle valleys that are rife with coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking.

Friends and family of Hand and Neal said they worried the pair had been abducted and that their bank accounts had remained idle since they disappeared.

But a day after relatives and co-workers went public with efforts to organize a search for the couple, the Peruvian government said national police had caught up with the duo in the northern village of Angoteros along the Napo River.

SURPRISED BY CONCERN

The tourism ministry said the couple were passengers on a boat headed up the river, a tributary of the Amazon, to a town on the border with Ecuador.

The couple "were surprised by the concern generated by family, friends and the international community after the cessation of their communications in late January," a ministry statement said.

It added that the pair had been traveling overland by bicycle, bus and river boat through remote areas where access to telephones and the Internet was limited.

Meanwhile, Hand's mother, Francine Fitzgerald, posted a message on Facebook saying she had been informed by U.S. Embassy and Peruvian authorities that the couple were spotted in a remote village and were now on a river boat.

She gave few other details but said she would not be satisfied until receiving "proof of life" from her son.

"Proof of life is my son's voice on the phone and a picture of him holding the missing poster," she wrote.

ABC News reported on Tuesday that the tourism ministry was sending a crew with video cameras to the location where the couple's boat is scheduled to dock on Wednesday to show they are alive and well.

The U.S. Embassy issued a separate statement saying it was aware of "reports that the missing U.S. citizens have been located," adding, "we are working with local authorities to confirm those reports."

The location of the couple in northern Peru was reinforced by previous accounts from police and officials of an ecological community in the Amazonian region of Iquitos. They had told Reuters earlier this week that Hand and Neal were seen embarking on an upriver boat trip toward Ecuador on February 16, three weeks after their families had last heard from them.

(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in San Francisco; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)

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Calif. couple feared missing in Peru found safe on river boat

LIMA (Reuters) - A young California couple feared by family to have been abducted while on a cycling trip through Peru have safely surfaced on a river boat headed for Ecuador, surprised to learn they were subjects of an international search, the Peruvian government said on Tuesday.

"The American tourists are continuing to enjoy their trip in the Peruvian Amazon," the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said in a statement, adding that a national police official had spoken with the couple and found them to be "in good health."

Garrett Hand and his girlfriend, Jamie Neal, both 25, had last been heard from by friends and relatives about a month ago, according to co-workers and a statement issued on Monday by the U.S. Embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital.

The embassy said then that Peruvian authorities had mounted a search for the pair, who are residents of Oakland, California.

The couple were said to have vanished while en route to Lima from Cusco, in the mountainous southeastern Peruvian interior near the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu, an area where U.S. citizens have been warned by the embassy of kidnapping risks.

That advisory last month was widely interpreted as linked to efforts by a remnant band of Maoist Shining Path rebels to repel a government push to regain control of jungle valleys that are rife with coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking.

Friends and family of Hand and Neal said they worried the pair had been abducted and that their bank accounts had remained idle since they disappeared.

But a day after relatives and co-workers went public with efforts to organize a search for the couple, the Peruvian government said national police had caught up with the duo in the northern village of Angoteros along the Napo River.

SURPRISED BY CONCERN

The tourism ministry said the couple were passengers on a boat headed up the river, a tributary of the Amazon, to a town on the border with Ecuador.

The couple "were surprised by the concern generated by family, friends and the international community after the cessation of their communications in late January," a ministry statement said.

It added that the pair had been traveling overland by bicycle, bus and river boat through remote areas where access to telephones and the Internet was limited.

Meanwhile, Hand's mother, Francine Fitzgerald, posted a message on Facebook saying she had been informed by U.S. Embassy and Peruvian authorities that the couple were spotted in a remote village and were now on a river boat.

She gave few other details but said she would not be satisfied until receiving "proof of life" from her son.

"Proof of life is my son's voice on the phone and a picture of him holding the missing poster," she wrote.

ABC News reported on Tuesday that the tourism ministry was sending a crew with video cameras to the location where the couple's boat is scheduled to dock on Wednesday to show they are alive and well.

The U.S. Embassy issued a separate statement saying it was aware of "reports that the missing U.S. citizens have been located," adding, "we are working with local authorities to confirm those reports."

The location of the couple in northern Peru was reinforced by previous accounts from police and officials of an ecological community in the Amazonian region of Iquitos. They had told Reuters earlier this week that Hand and Neal were seen embarking on an upriver boat trip toward Ecuador on February 16, three weeks after their families had last heard from them.

(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in San Francisco; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)

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