Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Missing Toddlers Recovered in Mexico After Harrowing Week with 'Severely Depressed' Father | Crime Alert 05.29.26

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Missing Toddlers Recovered in Mexico After Harrowing Week with 'Severely Depressed' Father | Crime Alert 05.29.26 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now, I'm Sidney Silvanni.
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  Speaker 1: A terrifying search for two missing toddlers has culminated in
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  Speaker 1: a dramatic rescue across international borders, exposing a mother's worst nightmare.
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  Speaker 1: Lizzie Tomage reported her two young sons, twenty two month
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  Speaker 1: old will and ten month old Wesley Richmond, missing from
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  Speaker 1: their father's home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, on Saturday, May
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  Speaker 1: twenty third. The children were last seen a full week
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  Speaker 1: earlier in Shelton, Washington, where their father had picked them
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  Speaker 1: up from Tomach's residence. The Utah Department of Public Safety
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  Speaker 1: issued a critical Amber alert stating that the two boys
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  Speaker 1: were in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death,
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  Speaker 1: officially naming their forty six year old father, Dame Stephen Richmond,
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  Speaker 1: as the primary suspect. Tomag took to TikTok alongside her
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  Speaker 1: family attorney, begging the public for any information that could
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  Speaker 1: lead to the recovery of her sons. The panic began
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  Speaker 1: Friday morning when Richmond completely failed to appear for a
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  Speaker 1: scheduled legal deposition.
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  Speaker 2: Of this week.
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  Speaker 3: For a deposition on May twenty second, minutes before the
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  Speaker 3: deposition was to start. We learned that Day had fired
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  Speaker 3: as attorney and would not be attite of the deposition.
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  Speaker 3: I immediately contacted him via calling his phone and texting.
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  Speaker 3: He did not respond.
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  Speaker 1: Tomag immediately requested a welfare check at Richmond's residence. The
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  Speaker 1: home was entirely empty, stripped of personal belongings, and abandoned.
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  Speaker 2: We learned that the house was vacant and there were
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  Speaker 2: things being moved out. There was no car, and Day
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  Speaker 2: and the boys were not home when we learned this,
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  Speaker 2: when we knew something was wrong.
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  Speaker 1: As investigators scrambled to trace Richmond's movements, a deceptive text
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  Speaker 1: message popped up on Tomach's phone. Richmond claimed that he
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  Speaker 1: had merely taken the two young boys on a spontaneous
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  Speaker 1: camping trip. However, law enforcement quickly unmasked the line. Cellular
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  Speaker 1: tracking revealed that Richmond sent the text while positioned near
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  Speaker 1: San Diego, California, and he had already crossed the United
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  Speaker 1: States Mexico border. For days, the family endured agonizing uncertainty
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  Speaker 1: until a major breakthrough. On Tuesday, Saratoga Springs police announced
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  Speaker 1: that the children had been located safe in the northwestern
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  Speaker 1: Mexican city of San Felipe. Following their rescue, family member
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  Speaker 1: Jenny hirsch Toomitch expressed the family's profound relief on Facebook,
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  Speaker 1: writing that she had never experienced true terror like this,
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  Speaker 1: before noting that the thought of never seeing the little
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  Speaker 1: guys again was more than they could process. While the
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  Speaker 1: children are being safely brought home, details about the suspect's
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  Speaker 1: unraveling life have emerged. Authorities revealed that Richmond was severely depressed,
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  Speaker 1: had abruptly quit his job, sold or gave away his
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  Speaker 1: worldly possessions, and entirely abandoned his home before fleeing across
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  Speaker 1: the border. Richmond has since been arrested and faces two
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  Speaker 1: counts of custodial interference. More crime and justice news. After
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  Speaker 1: this tragic daylight violence in Chicago has claimed the life
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  Speaker 1: of a promising young student, leaving a community of reeling
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  Speaker 1: in a f family broke in. Seventeen year old Pedro
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  Speaker 1: Ramirez was an honor rolled junior at Tilden High School.
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  Speaker 1: Loved by his peers, Pedro served as the captain of
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  Speaker 1: his school soccer team and was a dedicated volleyball player.
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  Speaker 1: On Tuesday morning, around seven forty am, Pedro was walking
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  Speaker 1: toward a local bus stop to make his usual commute
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  Speaker 1: to school in the back of the yard's neighborhood. He
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  Speaker 1: never made it. An unknown assailant open fire, striking the
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  Speaker 1: teenager multiple times. Pedro was rushed to Comber Children's Hospital,
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  Speaker 1: where he was tragically pronounced dead. Speaking to reporters from
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  Speaker 1: ABC seven, his greeting mother, Aloisa Garcia, described the crushing
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  Speaker 1: shock of losing her son so suddenly.
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  Speaker 3: Our lives changed completely and this is like a dream.
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  Speaker 1: Her partner, as Usina Velasquez, spoke to ABC seven in Spanish,
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  Speaker 1: pleading for an end to the rampant violence plaguing the
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  Speaker 1: city streets during morning hours when children are simply trying
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  Speaker 1: to walk to school. According to the Chicago Police Department,
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  Speaker 1: an unknown offender exited a dark colored suv and unleashed
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  Speaker 1: a of gunfire that targeted multiple people. Two bystanders, men
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  Speaker 1: aged fifty five and sixty one, who were sitting innocently
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  Speaker 1: inside a nearby vehicle, were also struck by the bullets.
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  Speaker 1: Both were rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. While
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  Speaker 1: a motive remains unclear, Chicago Police confirmed that a person
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  Speaker 1: of interest has been taken into custody. The losses devastated
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  Speaker 1: Pedro's classmates, including his best friend Mario Rosalis, who shared
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  Speaker 1: a heart wrenching memory with ABC seven about Pedro's unyielding
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  Speaker 1: commitment to his education.
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  Speaker 2: He always said, I will never miss school unless I'm
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  Speaker 2: very sick, or unless I'm dying. He actually died, so
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  Speaker 2: it really hurts my heart about those words that you said.
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  Speaker 1: Now online, a GoFundMe page established to cover funeral expenses
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  Speaker 1: describes Pedrito as a kind, cheerful, and helpful young man
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  Speaker 1: who left an indelible impression on everyone he met, adding
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  Speaker 1: that no mother should ever have to endure such profound pain. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: a decade's old mystery in southern Illinois has been solved,
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  Speaker 1: proving that time is no escape for a killer. For
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  Speaker 1: over thirty years, the brutal murder of thirty four year
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  Speaker 1: old Randy Gale Sporino remained a haunting cold case. On
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  Speaker 1: November ninth, nineteen ninety three, Spirino's body was discovered abandoned
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  Speaker 1: in a rural field in unincorporated Granite City, having suffered
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  Speaker 1: massive blunt force trauma to the head. Generations of law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement officers chased down thousands of leads, re interviewed witnesses
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  Speaker 1: and repeatedly analyzed DNA evidence, yet the killer managed to
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  Speaker 1: evade justice until now. On Tuesday, Madison County State's Attorney
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  Speaker 1: Tom Hayne announced that first degree murder charges have been
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  Speaker 1: filed against seventy year old Albert Buddy Ziegler of Caseyville, Haine.
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  Speaker 1: Emphasized that a monumental breakthrough in forensic genealogical DNA evidence
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  Speaker 1: broke the case wide open. The scientific breakthrough led to
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  Speaker 1: a stunning confession. Ziegler admitted to investigators that he picked
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  Speaker 1: Spirino up in Granite City, brought her back to his residence,
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  Speaker 1: and brutally beat her to death using a metal baseball
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  Speaker 1: bat or a steel pipe before dumping her body in
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  Speaker 1: the rural field. Prosecutors are aggressively fid to keep Ziegler
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  Speaker 1: detained without bond pending his trial. Ziegler's public defender argued
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  Speaker 1: that because he is seventy years old in recovering from
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  Speaker 1: a recent heart attack, he is far too ill for
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  Speaker 1: a prison environment. However, Judge James Hackett determined that the
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  Speaker 1: sheer gravity of the murder allegations outweighs his medical condition,
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  Speaker 1: ordering that Ziegler remains securely in custody. For the latest
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  Speaker 1: crime and justice breaking news, be sure to tune in
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow on your favorite podcast app with this crime alert.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Sidney Silvani.