The Crime Ledger: August 22, 2026

This briefing includes a neonaticide, a school attack that killed a teenager, and a family-annihilation trial involving young children. Victim names below are those officially released.

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: Saturday, August 22, 2026, afternoon ET
Scope: Cases with a verified arrest, charge, plea, or material trial move from August 20–22. Routine blotter and tabloid-only items were cut. Lawandcrime.com and People.com/crime were reviewed. The New Yorker had no matching crime or courts piece in the window.

Pennsylvania State Police charged an 18-year-old and his mother after Karoline Heintz, a PennWest California soccer player, was found stabbed in the hatch of her Jeep near campus. In Fagersta, Sweden, an 18-year-old former student attacked Brinellskolan with a sword on the first days of the school year, killing a 17-year-old girl; prosecutors ordered him detained Saturday. Laken Snelling pleaded guilty in Lexington to first-degree manslaughter in the death of her newborn. In Plymouth, the Clancy defense rested Friday after Dr. Phillip Resnick’s testimony. Miami-Dade charged a man already serving life in a 2021 stabbing. And El Paso police charged a son with murder after a neighbor’s odor call led officers to a body bag in a garage.

PennWest Player Found in Jeep Hatch

Karoline Heintz, 18, a PennWest California soccer player, was found dead in the rear hatch of her Jeep Cherokee near the California Area Public Library shortly after midnight August 20. Pennsylvania State Police Troop B charged her boyfriend, Royce Moser, 18, with homicide, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. His mother, Rachel Moser, 56, was charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy, and obstruction. Both remain in custody. Both are presumed innocent.

Troopers say Heintz met Moser on the evening of August 19 in the driveway of his father’s North Strabane home. After an argument he went inside, took a large kitchen knife, and stabbed her in the chest. He then put her in the hatch and drove to his mother’s house in Beallsville. The complaint says Rachel Moser helped clean the Jeep with disinfectant, gave him latex gloves, and directed that the vehicle be left near campus. A welfare check after Heintz failed to return found blood inside and outside the Jeep. The complaint also says Moser told his mother demons had told him to hurt her. Pennsylvania State Police Troop B Major Case Team.

A college athlete killed, then allegedly cleaned up with a parent’s help. The charging documents are the new public record, not a trial.

Sources:

• Pennsylvania State Police — Troop B files charges in university student homicide
• CBS Pittsburgh — Boyfriend stabs PennWest California student, police say mother helped
• KWTX — Mother and son charged in killing of PennWest student

Sword Attack at Fagersta School

An 18-year-old former student attacked Brinellskolan in Fagersta, Sweden, with a sword on Friday afternoon, killing one student and injuring others. Police have not named the dead 17-year-old girl; her family has been notified. Two teenage boys were severely injured. A third person had lesser injuries. The suspect, also unnamed here, is detained on suspicion of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder. He is presumed innocent.

Police were called shortly after 2 p.m. local time. Officers shot the suspect in the leg and took him into custody within minutes. He was wearing dark clothing, a helmet, and a face covering. Reuters reported Saturday that investigators are looking at whether he was involved in online communities that promote school violence, including a TikTok account that posted an image of a sword-like object about 20 minutes before the attack. Prosecutors ordered formal detention August 22. Swedish Police Authority.

A school-year opening, a rare weapon, and an active online-network inquiry. Names stay off this card until police release them.

Sources:

• Reuters — One killed, three injured in Swedish school sword attack
• Reuters — Police probe online networks after Fagersta school attack
• BBC — One killed in sword attack at Swedish school

Snelling Pleads Guilty in Infant Death

Laken Snelling, 22, a former University of Kentucky student-athlete, pleaded guilty Friday in Fayette Circuit Court to first-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant. The victim is her newborn son, found August 27, 2025, in a closet of her off-campus Lexington apartment. Sentencing is October 16. Prosecutors recommended a 13-year aggregate term.

She addressed Judge Diane Minnifield and admitted killing the child after an unexpected birth, then placing the body, wrapped in a towel inside a plastic bag, in a closet. Roommates found the remains. The medical examiner ruled the infant had been born alive and died of asphyxia by undetermined means. Lexington Police Department; Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney.

A neonaticide case that now has an on-the-record plea, with the sentence still to be imposed.

Sources:

• Lexington Herald-Leader — Former UK student athlete pleads guilty to baby’s death
• NBC News — Snelling pleads guilty to manslaughter
• LEX18 — Snelling pleads guilty in infant son’s death

Clancy Defense Rests

The defense in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial rested Friday after day 18 of testimony. The victims are Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months. Clancy, 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She acknowledges strangling the children in the family’s Duxbury home in January 2023. She is pursuing a lack-of-criminal-responsibility defense based on postpartum psychosis. She has not testified. Closings are expected next week.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington ended with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick, who has previously testified in postpartum cases including Andrea Yates, then told the judge, “Lindsay Clancy rests.” Prosecutors opened rebuttal the same afternoon with psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack and said more experts would follow Monday. Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office; trial in Plymouth Superior Court.

The live question remains criminal responsibility. A verdict is not in.

Sources:

• The Boston Globe — Lindsay Clancy trial Day 18: defense rests
• NBC Boston — Defense rests, prosecutors call first rebuttal witness
• Boston 25 — Defense rests in Lindsay Clancy murder trial

Life Inmate Charged in 2021 Stabbing

Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office homicide detectives charged Itiaba Ekong, 36, with first-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery, and grand theft in the February 4, 2021, stabbing death of Lenoris Henry Marlowe, 45, also identified in some coverage as Alexis Marlowe. Ekong is already serving life at Liberty Correctional Institution for a 2022 armed-robbery conviction. He is presumed innocent of the new counts.

Officers on a welfare check found Marlowe wrapped in a blanket and stabbed multiple times in the Northeast 199th Street area. Detectives said this week that Ekong admitted he stabbed the victim. The charges were filed while he remains in prison. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

A five-year-old homicide now has a named defendant and an alleged admission. That is a charging decision, not a conviction on this case.

Sources:

• NBC 6 — Man serving life admits to 2021 stabbing, MDSO says
• Local 10 — Suspect charged years after body found wrapped in a blanket
• Miami Herald — Miami-Dade detectives make arrest in cold-case slaying

Son Charged After Garage Body Bag

John Michael De Coste, 29, is charged with murder, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence involving a human corpse, and continuous family violence in the death of his father, David Edward De Coste, 59, a retired El Paso police detective. Idalia Nunez De La Torre, 28, is charged with tampering involving a human corpse. He is held without bond; she was booked on bond. Both are presumed innocent.

A neighbor reported an open garage and a foul odor on the 6800 block of Villa Hermosa Drive on August 18. Officers found the body wrapped in plastic, then called SWAT. Affidavits say the killing happened days earlier after the son saw his father kissing De La Torre; the body stayed in a bedroom, then went into a body bag ordered online and was moved to the garage. Autopsy: blunt-force trauma and skull fracture. El Paso Police Department.

A retired-detective victim, a multi-day concealment, and two defendants now on a charging affidavit.

Sources:

• KVIA — El Paso police charge man with murder after finding body in plastic bag
• KFOX14 / CBS4 — Affidavit: son charged, body left for days in garage

Also watching

Metropolitan Police launched a murder investigation August 21 after a postmortem on unidentified remains of a woman, about 25 to 45, found in woodland near Padstow Walk, Feltham. Identity and how long the remains had been there are still open. Met Police; BBC.

The Tupac Shakur murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis continues in Las Vegas with testimony, not a discrete charging or forensic break this window, so it stays off the cards.

Watch Washington County, Pennsylvania, for Heintz preliminary dates. Watch Swedish prosecutors on the Fagersta detention. Watch Plymouth for Clancy closings next week.