Police: Missing teen went to Mexico with 45-year-old man
ALLENTOWN, PA. » Police say a missing Pennsylvania teenager traveled to Mexico with a 45-yearold man, and they encouraged her Friday to return home to her family.
Amy Yu and Kevin Esterly bought one-way tickets from Philadelphia to Dallas and then headed to Cancun, Allentown police said. They say they believe the teen went willingly.
Amy’s family previously said the two met at church years ago, and the 16-year-old girl is friends with one of Esterly’s daughters.
Esterly’s wife, Stacy Esterly, said through her lawyer that she and her husband have been fighting constantly since the summer about his relationship with Amy, according to The Morning Call of Allentown.
“Kevin indicated that he was attempting to be her dad, a father figure to Amy,” lawyer John Waldron told the newspaper. “Stacy did not believe it to be merely a fatherdaughter relationship, and that’s why there were fights. They were fighting every day over Amy.”
Mexican authorities had issued an Amber Alert for Amy.
Allentown Police Capt. Bill Lake encouraged Amy to contact her mother and go to law enforcement in Mexico for help getting home.
Amy was reported
missing last week.
FBI at site where Civil War gold rumored to be buried
A 155-year-old legend about buried federal gold appears to have caught the attention of the FBI.
Dozens of FBI agents, along with Pennsylvania state officials and members of a treasure-hunting group, trekked this week to a remote site where local lore has it that a Civil War gold shipment was lost or hidden during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
The treasure-hunting group Finders Keepers has long insisted it found the gold buried in a state forest at Dents Run, about 135 miles (217 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh, but said the state wouldn’t allow it to dig.
The FBI has refused to
say why it was at the site Tuesday, revealing only that it was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity. Finders Keepers owner Dennis Parada said Friday he’s under FBI orders not to talk.
Historians have cast doubt on the claim that a shipment of gold was lost on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
Depending on who’s doing the telling, the shipment had either 26 gold bars or 52 bars, each weighing 50 pounds (23 kilograms), meaning it would be worth about $27 million or about $55 million today.
In an older post on the Finders Keepers website, Parada said his group found the likely burial site using a high-powered metal detector. But he said the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has refused to allow the group to dig.
A department spokesman said Friday that the group previously asked to excavate the site but elected not to pay a required $15,000 bond. The spokesman referred comment on Tuesday’s activity to the FBI.
Ex-cop pleads guilty after dog found in trash bag in park
PHILADELPHIA » A former Philadelphia police officer accused of putting his adopted dog in a trash bag and dumping it at a park has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty.
Michael Long entered the plea as part of a deal last week and was sentenced to a year of probation. He also agreed to never own a dog again.
A passer-by came upon the trash bag at a Philadelphia park in November 2016 and noticed a dog’s head visible inside. Animal welfare officers took the emaciated pit bull mix to a shelter for medical care.
The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals named the dog Cranberry because it was discovered shortly before Thanksgiving.
She has recovered and been adopted.
Long was fired from the department after charges were filed.