NEWS OF THE DAY
Mercury spill: A 19yearold Houston man has been arrested after trace amounts of mercury spilled at three locations caused dozens of people to be decontaminated as a precaution, the FBI said Monday. The agency’s Houston office said Christopher Lee Melder has been charged with burglary and unlawful disposal of hazardous material. Authorities didn’t immediately say why the mercury was spilled. Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena said the situation was under control and crews were cleaning up the spills. Police said it’s unclear how or when the toxic metal was spilled or if it was intentional.
Avalanche death: A 45yearold snowboarder was killed Sunday after he was caught in an avalanche in Park City that he unintentionally triggered and was buried, according to the Utah Avalanche Center. The male snowboarder triggered the avalanche as he headed down a slope and came to the steep, rocky area of Dutch Draw. Sheriff Justin Martinez said the snowboarder was dug out and lifesaving efforts were performed on him, but that he ultimately died. On the day of the accident, the Utah Avalanche Center said the danger of avalanches in the Salt Lake area was considerable.
Weatherrelated crashes: At least nine people have died in weatherrelated crashes in Missouri and Kansas amid a storm that dumped nearly a foot of snow in places, forced schools to close their doors and snarled traffic, authorities said. The wintry weather was part of a storm system that hit parts of the Midwest and was expected to extend into the Northeast through Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. In Missouri, the storm dumped 3 to 9 inches of snow across a large swath of the state.
Cold case arrest: A Florida truck driver has been arrested and charged in the killing of a college student working as an intern for a Denver radio station nearly 40 years ago, a break in the cold case that authorities on Monday credited to the analysis of DNA information shared on genealogy websites combined with old fashioned police work. James Curtis Clanton of Lake Butler, Fla., was arrested in the 1980 slaying and sexual assault of Helene Pruszynski, 21. He was being held in jail in Douglas County and it was not clear if he has a lawyer representing him. Pruszynski was from Massachusetts and had been working as an intern at KHOWAM for only two weeks when she was killed on Jan. 16, 1980, police said. She was found stabbed to death in a field the following day in what is now the sprawling community of Highlands Ranch. Investigators believe she was abducted while walking from a bus stop after work to her aunt’s home in Englewood, where she and a friend were living. Paternity test: A Baltimore man is suing over a takehome paternity test he says incorrectly indicated he was the father of a 1yearold girl. Nnanaka Nwofor wants the Ohio company that conducted the DNA test to pay $75,000 for the cost of supporting the child and her mother and the pain of learning he wasn’t the father, The Daily Record reports. The Fairfieldbased DNA Diagnostics Center Inc. claims its paternity tests are 100% accurate, according to the lawsuit, which says Nwofor’s takehome paternity test indicated he was “99.9999999995%” likely to be the girl’s biological father. Months later, Nwofor took another DNA Diagnostics Center test that found he was not the biological father, according to the lawsuit.