​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. A 25-year-old man has been charged with murder after authorities say he randomly stabbed a woman to death in a quiet South Florida neighborhood, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.. Kersten Francilus, who lives in a nearby community, is accused of attacking a woman in her 70s as she walked her dog Friday in the Southwood neighborhood in Stuart, Sheriff John Budensiek said.. Neighbors had called deputies shortly before the attack to report a suspicious man going door to door and asking unusual questions.. “We receive multiple calls in this community. The Southwood community, which is a quiet, higher end community here in Martin County. Multiple calls of a suspicious male walking door to door and interacting with different people,” Budensiek said during a news conference.. GOT A TIP?. “He asked several times, several different people where the new bank was. There’s no bank around here,” he said.. Witnesses described the man as calm and nonconfrontational during those encounters, the sheriff said.. A short time later, authorities received additional calls reporting that the same man was attacking a woman in a cul-de-sac.. A deputy who was already en route to investigate the suspicious activity arrived to find the suspect “actively stabbing” the victim while she lay on the ground, Budensiek said.. “Our suspect was on top of her, actually actively stabbing her,” he said.. A brave good Samaritan attempted to intervene but was unable to stop the attack before deputies arrived, officials said.. When confronted by the deputy, Francilus immediately dropped the knife and surrendered.. The victim suffered stab wounds to the upper torso and was transported to Cleveland Clinic Martin South, where she died, authorities said.. “This was a violent, vile homicide,” Budensiek said.. Police said there is no known connection between Francilus and the victim, and no clear motive has been identified.. “At this point, this appears like an extremely violent, random act of violence,” Budensiek said.. FOLLOW US ON X. Francilus was taken into custody at the scene and later booked into the Martin County Jail. Authorities said the knife used in the attack was a steak knife believed to have come from his home.. GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL. The sheriff’s office said Francilus has no known criminal history, though deputies had previously responded to a call involving him acting strangely at his residence.. CLICK HERE FOR MORE US NEWS. Budensiek said residents were wise to report the man’s peculiar behavior.. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. “The community did what they needed to do. They saw something that wasn’t right. They called the Martin County Sheriff’s Office,” he said.. Authorities have not released the victim’s name.  

​A sweeping federal takedown in Los Angeles has exposed what prosecutors say is a brazen, multimillion-dollar scheme that turned end-of-life care into a cash grab, allegedly using people who weren’t even dying to rip off taxpayers by more than $50 million. Eight defendants, including nurses, a chiropractor and a purported psychologist, were arrested in a crackdown targeting sham hospice operations and fraudulent medical billing schemes, according to the Justice Department. At the center of the case, hospice companies are accused of enrolling healthy patients, paying kickbacks and pocketing millions from Medicare for treatment that was never needed or never provided.

“We are enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for criminals who defraud American taxpayers,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. “The defendants arrested this morning who are charged with stealing millions of dollars of health care benefits got caught and now face years in federal prison.”

Investigators say the pattern was repeated across multiple cases. Patients who weren’t dying were enrolled in hospice, marketers were paid illegal kickbacks and providers cashed in while delivering little or no legitimate care.

In Anaheim, Lolita Minerd, a nurse, allegedly ran a hospice business that recruited patients at a market, promising them free services and $300 a month in cash to enroll. Some of the couples who signed up were not terminally ill, a doctor confirmed, yet they were paid $600 a month in envelopes of cash while Medicare was billed for end-of-life care. Minerd’s company alone submitted more than $9.1 million in claims, collecting roughly $8.5 million from taxpayers, authorities said.

“More than $50 million in losses to taxpayers” across the scheme were noted by HHS Inspector General T. March Bell, who said anyone who weaponizes hospice care to bilk Medicare should expect to be held accountable.

In another case, a Covina couple, a nurse and a self-described psychologist, allegedly pulled in more than $4 million from Medicare and spent it on mortgages, international travel, restaurants and personal bills.

Federal prosecutors say one repeat offender went even further, allegedly running multiple fraudulent hospice companies while already facing charges in a separate case and being legally barred from operating such businesses.

Beyond hospice fraud, authorities say the takedown uncovered a $19 million scheme targeting a labor union’s health plan that the defendants allegedly billed for fake or unnecessary chiropractic and therapy services.  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently lodged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer pleading with Texas authorities not to release an illegal immigrant accused of fatally slitting his wife’s throat with a pocketknife in Dallas.. Francisco Mendez-Marin, a 24-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested March 18 by the Carrolton Police Department and is charged with felony homicide after he allegedly killed his wife, 20-year-old Karla Rangel, during a domestic dispute.. The couple had been married for less than a month, FOX 4 Dallas reported.. When police arrived at the scene, Mendez-Marin had blood on his clothes and a bloody pocketknife on him, officials said.. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONFESSES TO 2 COLD-BLOODED MURDERS MONTHS APART: REPORT. Body camera footage shows Mendez-Marin telling officers, “I didn’t do anything bad” and “I was obligated to do it” in Spanish, according to the arrest affidavit.. “This depraved animal murdered his own wife just one month after they were married by brutally slitting her throat with a pocketknife,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis wrote in a statement. “This illegal alien should have never been allowed into our country to commit this heinous murder.”. “ICE requested authorities in Dallas to not release this cold-blooded killer onto the streets,” she continued. “Thankfully, Dallas politicians cooperate with ICE, so together we can ensure this murderer is NEVER loose in American communities.”. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. Mendez-Marin is currently in Dallas County Sheriff’s Office custody and being held in the Dallas County Jail, according to DHS.  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. FINAL CLUE: Ted Bundy unmasked in decades-old teen murder as cold case finally solved by DNA: report. UNDER OATH: County leaders seek advice from lawyers after Nancy Guthrie sheriff accused of perjury. ‘DIGITAL SPYING’: Hawaii doctor claims self-defense as prosecutors reveal wife tracking before alleged hike attack. SEND US A TIP HERE. TUG-OF-WAR: Luigi Mangione’s federal trial stays on track as judge rejects defense push for delay. WITHOUT A TRACE: Arizona girl last seen walking to stable before vanishing found alive decades later, authorities say. LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST. EVIL EXPOSED: Long-cold case shattered as DNA links suspect to savage attack, killing of young woman, investigators say. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER. GRAVE SECRETS: ‘Texas Killing Fields’ cold case explodes as suspect indicted in two slayings decades after 30 bodies found. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB. CALCULATED MOVE: Suburban mom accused of killing ex, his parents after ‘hang out’ text, confession revealed in docs: report. ‘INCONCLUSIVENESS’: Experts unload on Tyler Robinson’s ballistics claim: ‘Unable to identify is not the same as ruled out’. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP. MORBID MEMORY: Executed killer’s chilling claim about what she felt during pickax murders still haunts retired FBI agent. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X  

​NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!. An Arizona girl whose 1994 disappearance was long treated as a possible abduction has been found alive more than three decades later and investigators now say she left voluntarily.. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that Christina “Tina” Marie Plante, who vanished from Star Valley at age 13, has been located alive at 44, bringing a decades-old case to a close.. But new details shared by a lead investigator are shifting the narrative behind her disappearance.. Capt. Jamie Garrett, a cold case investigator who ultimately identified and contacted Plante, said she was surprised to learn the teen had run away rather than being taken.. ARIZONA GIRL LAST SEEN WALKING TO STABLE BEFORE VANISHING FOUND ALIVE DECADES LATER, AUTHORITIES SAY. “I guess she wasn’t happy with where she was living and who she was living with, and she ran away,” Garrett told NewsNation on Thursday.. “I was dumbfounded,” Garrett added. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. OK, so you ran away.’ I told her … ‘You know, we were under the impression that somebody kidnapped you. It was deemed a criminal offense.’”. Plante was last seen around midday on May 15, 1994, leaving her home in Star Valley on foot. According to her missing person flyer, she told others she was heading to a nearby horse stable but never returned. Investigators at the time classified the case as “missing/endangered” under suspicious circumstances.. REALTOR’S COLD CASE MURDER FINALLY SOLVED AFTER 15 YEARS, POLICE SAY. She was described as having blue eyes and dark blonde hair and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, multicolored shorts and black tennis shoes.. Her disappearance prompted an extensive search effort, but authorities were unable to develop meaningful leads. Over time, the case went cold, though it remained open and was periodically revisited by investigators.. Garrett said he recently focused on a lead involving an adult woman he believed could be Plante and reached out directly. The woman confirmed her identity, according to Garrett.. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X. The investigator said Plante indicated she left on her own with help from relatives she had been in contact with at the time.. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER. “She said that was a long time ago, that was an old life,” Garrett said. “She’s in her adult life. She has her family now. That’s not something she even thinks about.”. SEND US A TIP HERE. Garrett also told NewsNation that he does not believe there are immediate family members currently in the Star Valley area still searching for Plante.. LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST. Authorities have not released further details about where Plante has been or the circumstances surrounding her departure, citing privacy considerations.. LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB. The development marks a significant shift from the assumptions that guided the early invest