Suspect held in therapist’s slashing death
NEW YORK — A Queens man with a history of mental problems was arrested Saturday in the slaying of a psychologist attacked in her office with a meat cleaver, police said.
David Tarloff, 39, was taken into custody after investigators matched him with three palm prints found at the crime scene, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Murder and attempted murder charges were pending, Kelly said.
Therapist Kathryn Faughey was slashed 15 times with the cleaver and a 9-inch knife in her Manhattan office Tuesday evening. A psychiatrist who worked in the building, Dr. Kent Shinbach, went to Faughey’s aid and was badly injured.
“Second-class status” found for gay unions
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. — A commission established to study same-sex civil unions in New Jersey has found in its first report that civil unions create a “second-class status” for same-sex couples.
The report stops short of recommending that the state allow same-sex marriage, but it does find that same-sex couples in Massachusetts, the only state that allows same-sex marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that those in New Jersey do.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the initial report, which is scheduled to be made public Tuesday, the first anniversary of the state’s first civil unions.
Serial rapist linked to Nevada student’s death
RENO, Nev. — A 19-year-old college student missing since she was abducted nearly a month ago was strangled by a serial rapist who has attacked at least two other women, Reno police said Saturday.
An autopsy confirmed that a dead woman found Friday in a brush-covered field near a business park was Brianna Denison and that she died of strangulation, said Reno Deputy Police Chief Jim Johns.
Her body had been in the field for more than a week about 8 miles from the house where she last was seen early Jan. 20 at the edge of the University of Nevada, Reno, he said.
Student arrested in theft of $140,000
JOHNSON, Ark. — A college student was arrested in the theft of a briefcase containing more than $140,000 from the home of the chairman of meat-processing giant Tyson Foods Inc., police said.
Ryan Silvey, 19, was arrested in Olathe, Kan., by the FBI Fugitive Task Force, the Johnson Police Department said. He was taken back to Arkansas to answer a theft charge and was being held on $50,000 bail Saturday at the Washington County jail.
The briefcase was stolen during a party thrown by John Tyson’s daughter at the family’s home in Johnson just before the end of the year, police said.
Police say they have recovered some of the money.
Space station crew unfazed by satellite shootdown
HOUSTON — Military plans to shoot down a damaged U.S. spy satellite carrying toxic fuel will not concern the crew aboard the international space station, commander Peggy Whitson said Saturday.
The military hopes to smash the satellite as soon as this week — just before it enters Earth’s atmosphere. It was unclear how close the satellite will be to Space Station Alpha when it is shot down.
Whitson said NASA and the Department of Defense “love the station crew” and would not put them in harm’s way.
“So, no, we’re not worried about it,” she said in a news conference with the 10-person shuttle-station crew.
The 10 astronauts have until midday today to finish hauling supplies and experiments across the threshold of their linked spacecraft. That’s when the hatches will be closed in preparation for Atlantis’ departure early Monday morning.
