The Crime Ledger: August 29, 2026

This briefing includes child homicide, family violence, and elder-care killings. Names below are only those released by police, prosecutors, or court records.

Daily Breaking True Crime Briefing
As of: Saturday, August 29, 2026, afternoon ET
Scope: Verified homicides, charging decisions, verdicts, a cold-case forensic break, and one post-conviction scheduling order from August 27–29. Routine blotter, unverified social claims, and tabloid-only items were cut.

The strongest documented moves this window sit at two poles: a Los Angeles jury’s sanity finding against a caretaker already convicted of killing two elderly women in his charge, and a Florida jury’s first conviction in the 2022 murder-for-hire of Jared Bridegan. Maryland produced two charging packages with unusual public-interest weight — a 5-year-old killed in her home, with a former prosecutor’s-office analyst accused of leaking the investigation, and a delayed second-degree murder charge after a young mother’s death was ruled an asphyxiation homicide. Texas authorities put an official stamp on a 45-year identification in the 1981 killing of Yolanda Herrera. Chicago postal inspectors announced a new adult defendant in the 2024 on-route killing of letter carrier Octavia Redmond, now described in court papers as a paid hit. Bryan Kohberger was not granted a new trial; an Idaho judge only calendared 2027 dates while he considers a petition to withdraw the 2025 guilty pleas.

Diamond Bar Caretaker Found Sane

A Los Angeles County jury that had already convicted overnight caretaker Jianchun Li of two first-degree murders found him legally sane on August 27, clearing the way for a life-without-parole sentence. The victims were Monica Moon Lee, 75, who used a walker, and Hee Sook Park, 83, at Happy Homes Care, 23801 Sapphire Canyon Road, Diamond Bar. The special circumstance of multiple murders was found true. Sentencing is September 3 in Pomona.

The guilt-phase verdict came August 20. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced the sanity finding August 28. Prosecutors say that on June 24, 2023, Li took Lee into a bathroom, placed a plastic bag over her head, wrapped electrical tape around her neck, and strangled her, then killed Park in the same bathroom about 30 minutes later. Firefighters pronounced both women dead at the scene. No official motive has been released. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated; the DA’s Elder Abuse Section prosecuted.

Three years later, the person hired to keep two elderly women alive is the person a jury found sane when he killed them.

Sources:

• Los Angeles County DA — Diamond Bar caretaker found guilty of murdering two elderly women in assisted living facility
• CBS Los Angeles — LA County caretaker found guilty of murdering two women at assisted living facility
• FOX 11 Los Angeles — Caretaker found sane and guilty in Diamond Bar assisted living murders

First Conviction in Bridegan Plot

A Duval County jury convicted Mario Fernandez Saldana of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit a capital felony in the 2022 ambush killing of Jared Bridegan, 33, a father of four and Microsoft design manager. The panel of seven women and five men took about three and a half hours on August 26. Fernandez Saldana faces a mandatory life sentence; Judge London Kite set October 5 for sentencing.

Prosecutors alleged Fernandez Saldana, then married to Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner, solicited former tenant Henry Tenon to kill Bridegan amid a high-conflict custody dispute. Bridegan was shot February 16, 2022, after stopping on Sanctuary Boulevard in Jacksonville Beach to move a tire in the roadway while returning from dropping off the twins he shared with Gardner. His toddler daughter with his wife, Kirsten Bridegan, was in the vehicle. The State Attorney’s Office, Fourth Judicial Circuit, said Tenon’s DNA was on the crime-scene tire and that Fernandez Saldana paid Tenon at least $10,000 after the murder. The murder weapon was never recovered. Gardner remains charged and untried. Tenon, identified by both sides as the shooter, still faces trial. After the verdict, Gardner’s late-August jury selection was continued; local reporting put a later joint proceeding with Tenon on the table. Jacksonville Beach Police, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, ATF, and FBI Jacksonville assisted.

First completed trial in a three-defendant murder-for-hire case that left a child in the car. Two defendants still to be tried.

Sources:

• State Attorney, Fourth Judicial Circuit — Mario Fernandez Saldana found guilty of murdering Jared Bridegan
• Florida Times-Union — Jury convicts Mario Fernandez Saldana in Jared Bridegan killing
• News4JAX — Jury convicts Mario Fernandez of murder in February 2022 ambush shooting of Jared Bridegan
• ABC News — Alleged co-architect of fatal ambush of Microsoft manager found guilty

Charges in Na’Ryah Adams Killing

Maryland State Police charged two Hurlock men with murder in the August 11 shooting death of 5-year-old Na’Ryah Adams, and charged a former Dorchester County State’s Attorney’s Office analyst with accessory after the fact. Anthony Harris, 26, and Wendell Wongus III, 23, face first- and second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault, firearm, and evidence-alteration counts. Lindsay Ewing, 42, of Cambridge, is charged with felony accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. All three are allegations. None has been convicted in this case.

Charging documents unsealed this week say troopers found Na’Ryah and her father, Ryan Adams, 30, shot at about 2:17 a.m. on August 11 in the 3900 block of Ocean Gateway in Linkwood. The child was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Her father was wounded and survived. Court papers describe the shooting as retaliatory. Investigators say Harris’s phone contained a message thread with Ewing in which she allegedly passed non-public investigative details. Ewing is described as a former analyst in the county prosecutor’s office who later worked for a local criminal-defense attorney; police allege she was having an affair with Harris. Harris and Ewing were arrested August 25. Harris is being held without bond. Wicomico County prosecutors are handling the cases because of a conflict in Dorchester.

A kindergarten-age child was killed inside her home, and the charging package also alleges a leak from the local justice system that was supposed to investigate the killing.

Sources:

• WBOC — Suspect arrested, former Dorchester Co. State’s Attorney’s Office employee charged as accessory
• CBS Baltimore — 3 charged in shooting death of 5-year-old girl in Dorchester County, Maryland
• Star Democrat — Two Hurlock men charged in fatal shooting of 5-year-old in Linkwood; woman charged with accessory

DNA Names Suspect in Herrera Killing

Texas DPS says forensic investigative genetic genealogy identified Kelly Lee Brower in the 1981 sexual assault and beating death of Yolanda Herrera, 23, and that Brower confessed after interviews in Arizona. Capital murder. Brower, 68, was arrested August 19 in Cottonwood, Arizona, and is awaiting extradition. He is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.

Herrera was last seen walking home from a bar in the early hours of April 11, 1981. Children found her body April 13 in a field near the 500 block of East Aviation Drive in Bexar County / Universal City. Known suspects were eliminated. The case later entered Texas DPS’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. In 2025, Othram used remaining DNA from autopsy samples to build a genetic-genealogy lead to Brower, who had lived in Universal City at the time. Investigators obtained his DNA in Arizona in October 2025, reported a match, interviewed him, and say he confessed. Texas DPS issued its official case announcement August 28. Police have said they do not believe Brower and Herrera knew each other. Texas Rangers, Universal City Police, Cottonwood Police, Bexar County Medical Examiner, Othram, and Bode Technology are named on the official release.

A named victim from a 45-year-old sexual homicide now has an official charging path: preserved autopsy DNA, genealogy, a confirmatory sample, and a reported confession. Treat the confession language as what investigators say, not as a verdict.

Sources:

• Texas DPS — Texas Rangers, Universal City Police solve 1981 murder
• KSAT / News 4 San Antonio — Murder suspect arrested after 45 years at large after positive DNA match
• FOX 7 Austin — DNA leads to arrest in 1981 cold case murder of Texas woman

Third Adult Charged in Redmond Killing

Lyndell Deyoung, 35, was arrested August 24 and charged with first-degree murder in what prosecutors now describe as a paid hit on U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Octavia Redmond, 48. He also faces murder by acts creating a strong probability of death or great bodily harm. A then-15-year-old previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in juvenile court and was sentenced to five years. Yanheim Edwards has been charged in connection with the getaway car and its burning. These are allegations as to Deyoung and Edwards. He is presumed innocent.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirmed the August 24 arrest. Prosecutors told a detention hearing that Deyoung allegedly arranged the July 19, 2024, shooting on the 12100 block of South Harvard Avenue in West Pullman, threatened the teenager into carrying it out, and paid Edwards. Redmond was shot multiple times at close range while on her route. Investigators used phone data, the stolen Dodge Durango’s tracking system, and surveillance video. A Chicago Sun-Times review of a police report said Deyoung gave detectives a statement “outlining in full detail the motive and execution of the murder.” He was ordered held. Motive details beyond the paid-hit allegation have not been fully aired in independently confirmed filings. Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office; Chicago Police; U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force assisted.

A letter carrier killed on duty, framed by officials as a contracted homicide, and the alleged organizer only now in custody two years later.

Sources:

• Chicago Sun-Times — Third suspect charged in 2024 slaying of mail carrier Octavia Redmond in West Pullman
• ABC7 Chicago — Lyndell DeYoung accused of ordering teen to kill USPS letter carrier

Cecilton Hanging Ruled a Homicide

Jason Timothy Simpson, 28, of Cecilton, was charged with second-degree murder after the medical examiner ruled that Ashley Silverman, a 28-year-old mother of four, died by asphyxiation in June. He is being held without bond at the Cecil County Detention Center. He has not been convicted. Local court coverage also identifies her as Ashley Todd Silverman.

Maryland State Police responded just before 2 a.m. on June 18 to a report of a person in medical distress in the 100 block of West Main Street and found Silverman dead at the scene; Simpson was also there. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation. Simpson was arrested the morning of August 27 (state police dated the arrest Thursday). Charging documents cited by the Cecil Daily allege he told investigators Silverman had hanged herself from a backyard swing set, that he called his mother three times before calling 911, and that his “main method of assaulting Silverman is strangulation.” WBAL, citing state police, said officials have not separately confirmed the couple’s relationship in public comments. Next homicide-case date reported: November 24.

A delayed homicide charge after an initial medical-distress call, paired with prior domestic-violence counts at the same house.

Sources:

• Maryland State Police — Maryland State Police make arrest in Cecil County death investigation
• CBS Baltimore — Cecil County man charged with murder in June death of 28-year-old woman
• Cecil Daily — Judge denies bond in Cecilton murder case
• FOX45 Baltimore — Cecil County man charged with second-degree murder in death of 28-year-old woman

Kohberger Plea Challenge Gets 2027 Dates

Judge Steven Hippler calendared a June 3, 2027, status conference and a June 17, 2027, evidentiary hearing that will occur only if he finds Bryan Kohberger’s post-conviction petition warrants one. The victims remain Madison Mogen, 21; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. Kohberger pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the November 2022 Moscow, Idaho, murders and is serving four consecutive life sentences. He now seeks to withdraw those pleas. The convictions stand.

In a late-July handwritten petition, Kohberger claimed ineffective assistance, unkept promises about prison conditions, and pressure to enter a plea he now calls false. Hippler’s midweek order did not grant a hearing on the plea-withdrawal request itself and did not reopen the convictions. Prosecutors have asked that the petition be dismissed as conclusory and unsupported. A new trial is not on the calendar. Ada County / Fourth District Court; Idaho prosecutors of record.

Highest-visibility U.S. homicide case of the decade, and the only verified movement this week is procedural. Overstating it as a new trial would be wrong.

Sources:

• Associated Press — Idaho judge sets the timeline for Bryan Kohberger’s guilty plea challenge
• KMVT — Court sets 2027 evidentiary hearing for Kohberger’s effort to withdraw guilty plea

Also watching

Anderson County, South Carolina: on August 28 the sheriff’s office charged Justin Queen, 32, with murder and destruction of human remains in the 2025 disappearance of his mother, Christy Dunn, 52. Deputies say bones were found in a burn pit at the home they shared; a Clemson forensic anthropologist confirmed the remains were human, and DNA testing is pending. Queen was already in custody on child-neglect charges when the new warrants were served. Officials say they believe the remains are Dunn’s; treat that identification as investigative until the lab result. WYFF.

Trumann, Arkansas: a missing-person search at an auto shop led to remains in a 50-gallon drum buried under a van. As of Law & Crime’s August 27 update, Rudy Ray, 56, was charged with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse, not murder, and the Arkansas State Crime Lab had not officially identified the remains. Neighbor claims of a tattoo identification are not a substitute for the lab. KAIT.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a warrant scheduling the September 29 execution of Curtis Wilkie Beasley, 77, for the 1995 hammer killing of Carolyn Monfort, 62, in Polk County. Historical case returning via capital process, not a new investigation. ClickOrlando.

The New Yorker had no fresh crime/courts feature in this window. People.com’s in-window hit is the Bridegan conviction, already carded from the State Attorney’s release and local trial coverage.