ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The best chance to solve a decades-old quadruple murder in Florida ended Tuesday when sheriff's deputies said they could not link DNA to the two killers profiled in the book "In Cold Blood."

The convicted killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, were long suspected in the slayings of Cliff Walker, his wife, Christine, and their two children. The family was killed in December of 1959, about a month after Smith and Hickock murdered a Kansas farmer and his family.

Capt. Jeff Bell of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office told The Associated Press on Tuesday authorities were unable to make a match between Smith and Hickock, and Christine Walker, who was raped and had semen on her underwear.

Authorities said they were unable to match the DNA because only partial profiles could be taken from the exhumed bodies in December, and the Walker crime scene samples were old and degraded. No more tests were scheduled.

"The complication lies in the fact that there's still some uncertainty," Bell said. "It wouldn't exclude them but it also does not provide us with any level of confidence to say there's a match because there's not."

Police still believe the two men were likely involved.

"We're not closing the case," Bell said. "It remains an unsolved murder. The mystery continues and we'll look for other opportunities. We've reached a point where we don't believe we're going to accomplish that through DNA testing."

Testing decades-old DNA can be difficult, said Dr. Michael Baird, the laboratory director of the DNA Diagnostics Center in Ohio.

He said genetic evidence can degrade over time. How much DNA was retrieved from samples, how it was stored and the conditions it was exposed to all play a role in whether a full DNA profile can be collected.

He said testing a partial DNA profile would be like looking at a fingerprint that didn't have all the swirls.

"The ability to make a match with an individual would be compromised," Baird said. "It's not uncommon for this to happen with a sample that old."

Smith and Hickock fled to Florida after killing prominent Kansas farmer Herb Clutter, his wife and two of their children.

The murders in Holcomb, Kan., were chronicled in Truman Capote's book, which gripped readers with its vivid narrative of the Clutter family life and the tormented inner workings of the killers' minds. The book detailed the murders, the trial and the killers' execution.

The two men — who were drifters — were eventually captured in Las Vegas. A polygraph test cleared them of the Walker murders. But in 1987, a polygraph expert said those tests in the early 1960s were worthless.

In 2007, Sarasota Det. Kimberly McGath took a fresh look at the Walker murders and wanted to test the killers' DNA.

Smith and Hickock killed the Clutter family on Nov. 15, 1959, and took off to Florida in a stolen car. They were spotted at least a dozen times from Tallahassee to Miami and points in between.

On Dec. 19, the two men checked out of a Miami Beach motel. The Walker family was killed that day at their home on a ranch in the small community of Osprey about four hours northwest of Miami.

Cliff Walker was shot to death and his wife was beaten, raped and shot. Three-year-old Jimmie was shot to death and his 2-year-old sister was shot and drowned in a bathtub. News stories at the time noted that there were gifts around the tree.

At some point on the same day, Smith and Hickock bought items at a Sarasota department store. On Dec. 21, witnesses say they spoke with Smith and Hickock in Tallahassee.

McGath said the Walkers had been considering buying a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, which was the kind of car Smith and Hickock had stolen and were driving through Florida. McGath thinks that somehow, the Walkers and the killers met because of the car.

The detective found witness statements — and talked to people who are still alive — who said they saw Smith and Hickock in the Sarasota area around the time of the Walker murders.

"In Cold Blood" mentions the Walker killings in a short passage; Capote incorrectly states that the slayings occurred near Tallahassee, Fla., about five hours north of the actual scene.

He also relates a conversation between Hickock and Smith on a beach in Miami, and has Smith speculating that "a lunatic" copied the Kansas killings. The book says that in reply, Hickock "shrugged and grinned and trotted down to the ocean's edge."

BIRMINGHAM — A UPS cargo plane crashed and burned Wednesday morning on the outskirts of an Alabama airport, killing two crew members and scattering boxes and charred debris across the grassy field, officials said.

The pilot and co-pilot of the jet were pronounced dead at the scene, said Birmingham Fire Chief Ivor Brooks. The crash site had been burning, but the blaze was extinguished by late morning, Brooks said.

The plane crashed in an open field on the outskirts of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, said Toni Herrera-Bast, a spokeswoman for the city's airport authority. The crash had not affected airport operations, though it did appear to topple a tree and a utility pole.

The top was broken out of the tree and there are pieces of a utility pole and limbs in the road. Nearby, grass was blackened near the bottom of a hill. A piece of the fuselage and an engine are visible on the crest of the hill. White smoke was pouring from the other side of the hill.

It was not immediately known what the plane was carrying; UPS spokesman Jeff Wafford said only that the plane was carrying a variety of cargo.

Sharon Wilson, who lives near the airport, said she was in bed before dawn when she heard what sounded like engines sputtering as the plane went over her house.

"It sounded like an airplane had given out of fuel. We thought it was trying to make it to the airport. But a few minutes later we heard a loud 'boom,'" she said.

Another resident, Jerome Sanders, lives directly across from the runway. He said he heard a plane just before dawn and could see flames seconds before it crashed.

"It was on fire before it hit," Sanders said.

At 7 a.m. Wednesday, conditions in the area were rainy with low clouds. About 45 minutes later, smoke was still rising from the scene, where a piece of the plane's white fuselage lay near a blackened area on the ground.

"The plane is in several sections," said Birmingham Mayor William Bell, who was briefed on the situation by the city's fire chief. "There were two to three small explosions, but we think that was related to the aviation fuel."

"As we work through this difficult situation, we ask for your patience, and that you keep those involved in your thoughts and prayers," Atlanta-based UPS said in a statement.

Previously, a UPS cargo plane crashed on Sept. 3, 2010, in the United Arab Emirates, just outside Dubai. Both pilots were killed. Authorities there blamed the crash on its load of between 80,000 to 90,000 lithium batteries, which are sensitive to temperature. Investigators found that a fire on board likely began in the cargo containing the batteries.

The Airbus A300 that had taken off from Louisville, Ky., crashed around 5 a.m. CDT about a half-mile from the runway, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

Airbus said in a news release that the plane was built in 2003 and had logged about 11,000 flight hours over 6,800 flights.

The A300 was Airbus' first plane, and the type first flew in 1972. American Airlines retired its last A300 in 2009, and no U.S. passenger airlines have flown it since then. Airbus quit building them in 2007 after making a total of 816 A300 and A310s.

CALLAWAY — For the second time in as many days, deputies have arrested a door-to-door salesman.

Mardo Soo, 24, was jailed Tuesday night after he raised the suspicions of his potential customers, according to Bay County Sheriff’s Office records. Soo was arrested the day after his friend, Lauri Luden, 20, was arrested for peddling without a permit.

According to records, deputies talked to Soo at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after a homeowner reported that he had opened a screen door to knock on the interior door, which opened as a result. Soo stood outside the door yelling “hello.” The deputy suggested Soo not open any doors and let homeowners come to the door on their own if he wanted to avoid problems in the future.

Soo also was warned about the restrictions of the peddler’s permit he had, including the hours he was allowed to operate. Peddling is permitted between 9 a.m. and up to 30 minutes before sunset. Soo told the deputy he was done for the day anyway, because he had to go pick up his friend at the Bay County Jail.

It was almost 8 p.m., and Soo and the deputy were both driving with their headlights on when they met the second time. Soo was walking with another man who is not identified in the report, though the report says Soo’s companion was the same man who had been arrested for peddling without a proper permit. The two men approached the deputy, and Soo asked what he had done this time.

The deputy pointed out that it was well past sunset, and Soo must have noticed because he was driving with his headlights on. Soo again said he was done for the day and got in his car to go home.

The deputy spoke with his supervisor, who said Soo should be arrested, so the deputy went to Soo’s address and arrested him for violating the restrictions of his permit.

Both men pleaded to the charges. The details of their sentences are not clear.

PANAMA CITY — Some of the evidence against a man accused of killing his wife and his father-in-law won’t get to a jury after a judge ruled investigators violated his Miranda rights during several interrogations and suppressed a portion of his statements.

Bryan Keith Castleman, 53, clearly asserted his right to remain silent and have an attorney during questioning from Bay County Sheriff’s deputies investigating the deaths of Mary Ann Castleman and Leroy Minnich after Springfield Police in November found their bodies in the house where all three lived.

When Castleman said “I’m talking to my attorney,” Sgt. Stephen Jencks got up and left the interrogation room to write a report that said the interview ended when Castleman invoked his right to an attorney, but investigator Jeff Haire stayed behind and continued to question Castleman.

Haire testified in a hearing last month that he thought Jencks left the room prematurely; he understood Castleman to be saying he planned to talk to an attorney at some point in the future. There was a long silence as Jencks left the room, and Haire even gathered his belongings as if he too was about to leave the room. Then Haire asked, “so you don’t want to talk to us?”

 Judge James Fensom watched video footage of the interview, which was conducted at the Springfield Police Department, and determined from Haire’s questions after Jencks left the room that Haire did understand Castleman was asserting his rights to remain silent and have an attorney.

“The Court finds that a reasonable police officer in those circumstances would have understood that the defendant was invoking his right to counsel and to remain silent.

Fensom wrote in a 10-page order suppressing Castleman’s statements that there was nothing ambiguous about Castleman’s assertion of his rights, and even though Castleman later agreed to continue speaking with investigators Haire’s comments after Castleman asked for a lawyer were “aimed at overcoming the will of the defendant, which is at odds with the requirements of Miranda.”

Only portions of Castleman’s statements were suppressed. Investigators conducted a total of six interviews with Castleman that day, and the three that occurred after he told Haire “I’m talking to my attorney” were thrown out.

Springfield Assistant Police Chief Barry Roberts wrote in his investigative report that Castleman very clearly admitted to killing his wife and Minnich. However, that statement was made after he invoked his Miranda rights so will be suppressed. It’s not clear what Castleman said in statements that will be admitted; confessions are not considered public record before a case is resolved.

The BCSO went back over the footage to determine if Haire had intentionally violated Castleman’s rights, said Capt. Jimmy Stanford, who leads the special investigations division that was called in to assist with the investigation. Stanford said Haire had been preoccupied by a text message and hadn’t caught Castleman’s assertion. The suppression shouldn’t have a significant impact on the prosecution, Stanford said.

“It doesn’t cripple the case, and we don’t have bad acts by the Springfield police or the investigator,” Stanford said.

Castleman’s public defender, Kim Dowgul, declined to comment, and prosecutor Larry Basford doesn’t comment on pending cases. Castleman could be sentenced to death if he’s convicted at trial in October.

PANAMA CITY -- Police are investigating a spree of tire slashings in St. Andrews Sunday night, but the cases appear random, which is making it difficult to come up with a suspect, a police spokesman said.

Most of the time when tires get slashed it’s an isolated incident, often tied to a domestic dispute, and the suspect is obvious, said Lt. Robert Luther, spokesman for the Panama City Police Department. When police have to deal with at least 10 separate victims in the same neighborhood, and there’s no apparent connection between the victims, finding a suspect becomes more difficult, Luther said.

That’s the situation confronting police, Luther said. He didn’t know how many victims had their tires slashed Sunday night; it was at least 10, he said. There are no suspects.

The victims were located roughly between 11^th Street and 15^th Street in St. Andrews. There have been no reported tire slashings in the area since Sunday night, Luther said.

Police continue to investigate.

CALLAWAY - There are spills and then there are spills. 

An Altha man lost control of his 2004 tractor-trailer while headed east on State 22, ran over a gas pump island and then zoomed across Star Avenue and crashed into a dumpster and a concrete barrier after he spilled hot coffee on himself, Florida Highway Patrol officials wrote in a news release. The incident happened at 4:20 a.m. Thursday. 

The driver, 48-year-old Kenneth Wayne Weeks, was not injured in the incident, the news release states. Troopers added that there will be no charges stemming from the incident.   

BIRMINGHAM — Investigators found flight recorders on Thursday that could hold important clues about why a UPS jet crashed at Birmingham's airport, killing two pilots.

The voice and flight data recorders were found among the wreckage of the plane that went down as it was attempting to land in Birmingham early Wednesday. The plane slammed into a hillside just short of the runway.

Workers in white coveralls focused Thursday on the tail section of the aircraft where the devices are typically found. In the late morning, one of them emerged from the partially burned section carrying one of the recorders and put it on an all-terrain vehicle. Other debris remains on the ground and hasn't been moved.

The search of the tail area had been delayed because it was still smoldering late Wednesday.

The A300 jet headed from Louisville, Ky., to Birmingham, Ala., landed in a field near the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport around daybreak Wednesday, killing the two pilots on board and scattering wreckage over a wide area. The aircraft rained pieces of metal into front yards and sheared off a piece of one family's back deck.

Residents in a hilly neighborhood near the airport have worried for years about the possibility of a plane crash.

The crash happened in a grassy field where a neighborhood stood until several years ago, when airport officials began buying up and then razing houses to clear the area near the end of the runway.

But such offers, which began in 1986, weren't made on some of the nearby homes, including that of Cornelius and Barbara Benson, who live in a two-story, split-foyer home just a short walk from the crash site.

"Hopefully we can get out of here now," said Cornelius Benson.

The jet clipped trees around the Bensons' yard, leaving broken plastic and twisted metal on the ground, and took a piece of their deck before slamming into a hill.

Other neighbors living near the airfield reported seeing flames coming from the aircraft and hearing its engines struggle in the final moments before impact.

"It was on fire before it hit," said Jerome Sanders, who lives directly across from the runway.

A preliminary investigation indicated the pilots did not make any distress calls, NTSB board member Robert L. Sumwalt said.

UPS spokesman Jeff Wafford said the jet was carrying a variety of cargo. He did not elaborate.

The pilots' names were not immediately released. But a man who identified himself as a family member said one of the pilots was Shanda Fanning, a woman in her mid-30s from Lynchburg, Tenn.

Wes Fanning, who said he was the woman's brother-in-law, said Shanda Fanning had been flying since she was a teenager.

He said officials contacted her mother and that UPS representatives were with the family.

Ryan Wimbleduff, who lives just across the street from the airport property, said the crash shook his house violently. Standing in his driveway, he and his mother could see the burning wreckage.

"I ran outside and it looked like the sun was coming up because of the fire on the hill," he said. "Balls of fire were rolling toward us."

Wimbleduff said it can be unsettling to live so near low-flying, big aircraft.

"We'll sometimes be outside and joke about being able to throw rocks at them, they're so close," he said.

Cornelius Benson, 75, said planes routinely fly so low over his house that a few years ago, the airport authority sent crews to trim treetops.

Sharon Wilson, who also lives near the airport, said she was in bed before dawn when she heard what sounded like engines sputtering as the plane went over her house.

James Giles said the plane missed his home by a couple of hundred yards, judging from tree damage and debris. He was at work at the time but said it was clear from the scene that the plane was attempting to land on the north-south runway that is typically used by much smaller aircraft. Large planes such as the A300 typically aim for the bigger east-west runway, he said.

"They were just trying to get to a landing spot, anywhere," he said.

The plane was built in 2003 and had logged about 11,000 flight hours over 6,800 flights, Airbus said in a news release.

The A300, Airbus' first plane, began flying in 1972. Airbus quit building them in 2007 after making a total of 816 A300 and A310s. The model was retired from U.S. passenger service in 2009.

Wednesday's crash comes nearly three years after another UPS cargo plane crashed in the United Arab Emirates, just outside Dubai. Both pilots were killed.

Authorities there blamed the Sept. 3, 2010, crash on the jet's load of 80,000 to 90,000 lithium batteries, which are sensitive to temperature. Investigators determined that a fire probably began in the cargo containing the batteries.

PANAMA CITY — The State Attorney’s Office can continue its prosecution of an expert witness accused of perjury, a judge ruled Thursday in a hearing to determine if prosecutors who will testify against the accused amounts to prejudice against him.

Attorney Michael Grabner had sought to have the office disqualified from prosecuting his client, John Lloyd, because Assistant State Attorney Bob Sombathy, who prosecuted the case in which Lloyd is alleged to have knowingly misrepresented his qualifications for testifying as an expert, has taken an informal role in prosecuting Lloyd in addition to his role as a witness against him.

Grabner’s motion suggests Sombathy and Assistant State Attorney Megan Teeple, who is prosecuting Lloyd on several felony counts of perjury, are taking the case against Lloyd personally, but Judge Michael Overstreet found no reason an attorney couldn’t be both witness and prosecutor and no evidence of prejudice against Lloyd.

Lloyd was arrested in February after he testified in a hearing and at the trial of Timothy Foxworth, who was charged with aggravated child abuse for allegedly causing his infant son’s skull fractures. Doctors who treated the boy said Foxworth’s explanation for the injuries was implausible, but Lloyd testified the injuries could’ve been sustained as a result of a short fall to a tile floor as Foxworth said.

Jurors convicted Foxworth of the less severe charge of child abuse, which reduced the maximum prison sentence by 25 years. The deputy who arrested Lloyd said law enforcement was of the opinion that Lloyd had cheated the child out of justice.

Prosecutors believe Lloyd misrepresented himself as a professor of medicine when in fact, Lloyd, who holds a Ph.D. but is not a physician, was never employed as such. Lloyd also is accused of several other misrepresentations.

Overstreet also continued Lloyd’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin next week, over strong objections from prosecutors who have already made arrangements including booking 13 hotel rooms and three flights for witnesses.

Since his arrest, Lloyd has continued to testify as an expert in other trials in Florida and at least one in Texas. He was charged in July with perjury in St. Lucie County as well, which prompted Teeple to ask Overstreet to revoke Lloyd’s bond and lock him up.

Overstreet didn’t go so far as to throw Lloyd in jail, but he did modify the conditions of his bond. Lloyd is not allowed to testify as an expert in any case anywhere until Overstreet says otherwise.

Lloyd’s next court date was scheduled for September.

MARIANNA -- The identities of two suspects in a Jackson County animal neglect case have been released by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators were able to identify the owners of the neglected dogs as Heidi Amanda Westman and Leland Emery Kluth, according to a release from JCSO. Arrest warrants for Westman and Kluth for 42 counts of animal cruelty have been issued. Investigators have been unable to locate the suspects and have reason to believe they may have left the immediate area. JCSO is requesting anyone who may have information as to the whereabouts of Westman and Kluth to contact the office at 850-482-9648 or Jackson County Crime Stoppers at 850-526-5000.

On Aug. 8, officers from Jackson County Animal Control, members of the State’s Attorney’s Office and deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded to 4381 Francis Drive, Marianna, after a report of abandoned animals. The responding officers determined the owner of the residence had abandoned approximately 40 dogs. The dogs were transported to Animal Control of West Florida, Inc. where they were housed and assessed. Some of the dogs had died and other had numerous health issues, JCSO said.

PANAMA CITY – Heavy rainfall flooded roads and brought floodwater to the doorsteps of several Bay County residents over the weekend, but an extended break in the tropical weather system allowed waters to recede and spared many at-risk homes from damage.

Conditions were sunny and clear in the Panama City area early Sunday after most areas of the county were soaked by 3-5 inches of steady rainfall the previous day. Scattered showers and thunderstorms returned in the afternoon, dropping an additional 1-2 inches of rain in some areas as a regional storm front lingered and a moist tropical air mass continued stirring in the Gulf of Mexico. Since Friday, Panama City has received an estimated 8.54 inches of rain in some areas.

Sunday, sandbags remained outside homes in Lynn Haven’s Belaire Estates neighborhood and nearby Ravenwood Apartments. There were large puddles in many areas, but most floodwater had receded. An estimated 3.97 inches of rain fell in Lynn Haven since Friday, though localized estimates are higher. One of the larger pools of remaining floodwater was in Lynn Village apartments on West 26th Street, where several inches of water were being pumped from a low-lying parking lot.

Across the street on Floyd Drive, 74-year-old Bruce McLauhorn said he watched floodwater inch closer and closer to his home Saturday.

“Another hour of that rain and we would’ve flooded,” he said. “It was very close. Just missed it.”

His son flagged down motorists Saturday, telling them to slow down to prevent wakes from pushing water into the home. “NO WAKE” was also smudged onto the side of a dusty portable storage container outside the home. The container – and a large dumpster – have been in McLauhorn’s driveway since historic rainfall and flooding hit the area in July and caused major damage to his home. McLauhorn, who is a retired Navy SEAL, and his wife have been living at a friend’s cottage while repairs to their home continue.

As for Cincinnati Avenue in Panama City, where floodwater reached one foot in some places and shut down part of 19th Street, conditions were much drier on Sunday. Barricades blocking traffic were removed and the streets were re-opened.

While Cincinnati was among many roads that dried out, conditions on others deteriorated, forcing school closures and stranding some residents. Washington, Holmes and Jackson counties announced its public schools will be closed Monday, citing dangerous road conditions caused by rain and flooding. Officials have scheduled road assessments to determine if further cancellations will be necessary this week. Emergency Management officials in each county have urged motorists to use caution.

Bay District schools are scheduled to open on Tuesday. However, orientation at Hutchison Beach Elementary School planned for Monday was cancelled due to flooding in areas of the school, officials wrote in a news release. 

"All other schedules remain intact at this time," they added. 

In Youngstown, a large stretch of Muscogee Drive was washed away, exposing pipes and electrical wires underneath. The washout effectively trapped 13 families in a neighborhood accessed by the road, according to resident Kimberly Hayden.

Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport also experienced weather-related problems Sunday. A lightning strike caused a temporary power failure at the air traffic control tower, disrupting radio communication for about 20 minutes, according to airport executive director Parker McClellan. No flights were delayed, and “at no point was anybody in any danger” due to the outage, McClellan said.

More showers and thunderstorms are expected through the week, though rainfall amounts are expected to dwindle. A 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms is forecast Monday, and a 50 percent chance is forecast Tuesday.

“The bottom line is we’re in for another day or two of at or above normal precipitation,” said NWS meteorologist Ron Block.

A flash flood watch will remain in effect.

“Even if this heavy rain dissipates, the ground is still very saturated across much of Bay County and any additional rain is enough to cause certainly localized flooding on roads and streets and streams, and particularly low-lying areas,” Block said.

RAINFALL TOTALS FROM FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT

Panama City: 8.54”

Panama City Beach: 4.84”

Callaway: 6.26 “

Lynn Haven: 3.97”

Marianna: 9.25”

PANAMA CITY — Sure — traffic will be slower than usual — but drivers must be aware children will be on their way to school Tuesday morning, officials said.

“Traffic is going to be horrendous on Tuesday,” said Bay County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Marc Tochterman. For “people who aren’t going to school, that are going through school zones, it’s going to take them twice as long to get to work.”

“They need to get out of the house early,” Tochtermann said.

SCHOOL START TIMES

Tuesday will be the first day of school for Bay District Schools schools. Drivers should watch for children, school zones and school buses, officials said.

“You have all kinds of people dropping off their kids — new (prekindergarten and kindergarten) parents all drive their kids to school,” Tochtermann said, noting delays will be seen throughout the first week of school.

In a news release, officials at the Sheriff’s Office stated drivers should not pass a stopped school bus. Drivers going in the opposite direction of a traveling bus on roads that do not have a five-foot median must also stop.

“When that arm comes out and that stop sign comes out, they need to stop, even if it’s on a four-lane road. If there’s not a five-foot median between the opposing lanes — the north side lane and the south side lane — they need to stop,” Tochtermann said.

“Watch out for kids on bus stops. They’re impulsive. They (may) jump out in traffic, so people need to be careful,” he added.

School zones have not changed from last year, officials said. Drivers should pay attention to the yellow flashing lights and speed limits, which range from 20 to 35 mph.

However, parents and children should also practice safety measures. In the release, officials said, parents should teach children to use the cross walk.

“When you’re crossing the street, look left, right and then left again,” Tochterman said. “Listen to the crossing guards, listen to what they say.”

He noted parents should teach children about “stranger danger.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings and stay on the sidewalks if there are sidewalks,” he said. “If someone stops to talk to you, don’t go up to the car.”

The release also stated parents should drop off children in designated areas and parents should not place personal information on the outside of their children’s backpacks. 

SOUTHPORT — No one can ever know exactly what led Mack Kilpatrick to shoot his ex-wife and then himself, but records of an investigation into the March 4 murder-suicide provide a glimpse into a relationship that was troubled for years.

Deputies with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t speculate at the time whether Kilpatrick shot Kelley Dickson or she shot him, but the medical examiner’s autopsy report concluded she was shot first, before Kilpatrick turned the pink .380-caliber pistol on himself.

Chris Dickson, Kelley Dickson’s sister, said Kilpatrick had been dealing with a series of physical and emotional difficulties before he died. The couple divorced, and Kelley Dickson, who worked for a defense contractor, moved away for a time while Kilpatrick, who worked for a while as a martial arts instructor and private security guard, dealt with a painful nerve disorder.

A few months earlier, Kilpatrick told Chris Dickson he had attempted suicide. Dickson was helping out with some yard work when Kilpatrick described swallowing a bottle of pills, putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. The gun didn’t fire, and Kilpatrick threw up, Chris Dickson said.

“I’m not real sure how we got on to that conversation,” he said, “but it did come up.”

Kilpatrick loved Kelley Dickson enough to let her move back in with him about a year before they died, his family members told investigators, but he had come to believe she was cheating on him.

Chris Dickson said the couple’s relationship was not romantic after the divorce, but Kilpatrick felt like it was exclusive. He began to show up out of the blue at places Kelley Dickson went; it was never clear how he’d found her, Chris Dickson said.

“He always thought she had something to hide from him,” Chris Dickson said.

The couple had been fighting the day before their bodies were discovered in their home; by all accounts they fought frequently. Kelley Dickson’s daughter told investigators the pink pistol matched one that belonged to her mom. Kilpatrick’s sister told investigators he usually would give her some space when they fought and that he didn’t have guns.

On the other hand, Kilpatrick told her and at least one friend Kelley Dickson had pulled a gun on him not long before they divorced. Several people interviewed during the investigation said they were aware of threats of gun violence between them in the past.

MARIANNA -- A woman was killed in a Monday morning wreck in Jackson County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The victim was identified by FHP as Betty J. McDaniel, 77, of Grand Ridge, who died at a Jackson County hospital, a news release states.

FHP said Benjamin D. Castro, 18, of Sneads was eastbound on U.S. 90 in a 2004 Chevrolet Colorado at about 8:30 a.m. when his vehicle drifted to the left and crossed onto the westbound travel lane and struck a westbound 1997 Lincoln town car driven by McDaniel. Castro had serious injuries, the report said.

The wreck is under investigation, troopers added. 

PANAMA CITY - The Bay County Sheriff’s Office will hold an Identity Theft seminar on Scams and Scammers this Thursday evening at First Baptist Church on

Fraud is the fastest growing classification of crime in the United States and identity theft is the fastest growing type of fraud, they added. Fraud investigators Paul Vecker and Craig Romans from the Criminal Investigations Division of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office will present information on the various types of fraud and different scams that are currently circulating in the Bay County area, including mortgage fraud.

"Arm yourself with the information you need to prevent becoming a victim of scams and frauds," the news release states.

The Identity Theft seminar is free and open to the public and begins at 6pm this Thursday at First Baptist Church on Harrison Avenue, downtown Panama City.

JACKSON, Miss. — A man arrested after a woman walked into a Mississippi police station saying she had been abducted in Florida has pleaded not guilty to violating federal law governing transporting persons for prostitution.

Ruperto Moncillo Flores and Jacobo Feliciano-Francisco, also known as Uriel Castillo-Ochoa, were arrested June 27 after the woman told Hattiesburg police she’d been abducted in Panama City Beach.

The woman was a witness in a human trafficking case.

Flores, of Lawrenceville, Ga., was indicted for violating the Mann Act. The charge is related to another woman who was found during the investigation. He isn’t charged with the Florida abduction.

He pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg.

Feliciano-Francisco pleaded has not guilty in Florida to kidnapping the victim.

Authorities are seeking a second suspect in the kidnapping.

An FBI affidavit dated July 1 described Flores as a transporter of women for a prostitution network.

The indictment said Feliciano-Francisco and an unidentified man abducted the victim as retaliation for cooperating in an earlier human trafficking investigation, which led to numerous convictions in Tennessee and Kentucky. The indictment also said Feliciano-Francisco sexually assaulted the woman and planned to force her to work as a prostitute in Louisiana. The court documents did not say which city in Louisiana.

The affidavit filed in Flores’ case in Mississippi said Feliciano-Francisco called Flores on June 27, the same day the victim was abducted, and asked him to take a woman from Hattiesburg to Louisiana for the purpose of prostitution.

A different woman questioned as part of the investigation told police that Flores had taken her from Georgia to Mississippi for prostitution, with the final destination also being a city in Louisiana. That was the alleged crime for which he was indicted on the Mann Act charge.

Flores pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. Trial was set for Oct. 21.

His lawyer, Wesley Broadhead, said Tuesday that he only recently got involved in the case and that it’s too early for him to comment.

Feliciano-Francisco, of Hattiesburg, is charged in U.S. District Court in Panama City with kidnapping the alleged victim from her house in Panama City Beach. He pleaded not guilty on Aug. 12 and is scheduled for trial Dec. 9. He’s facing a total of five charges, including kidnapping and retaliating against a witness.

His attorney, Maria Dykes, was in court Tuesday morning and did not immediately respond to a phone message.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Panama City says the woman was outside her house when two men drove up and one of them forced her into the vehicle about 11:45 a.m., and then drove her to Mississippi.

The affidavit identifies Feliciano-Francisco as the driver, but said the other suspect was unidentified. The FBI said in a news release last week that it’s looking for the second suspect and released a sketch of him.

Authorities say the woman escaped through a bathroom window from the house in Hattiesburg and went to the police department about 6:30 p.m.

Feliciano-Francisco was arrested at the house that night. Flores was arrested on Interstate 59 in Jones County, Miss.

ST. PETERSBURG — Police say two people were injured when chemicals they were using to make hashish oil caused an explosion at a St. Petersburg home.

The incident happened Monday night.

St. Petersburg police say one man was taken to the Tampa General Hospital burn unit for treatment of serious burns. Th other was treated at the scene.

The explosion blew out an exterior wall at the home and severely damaged another one.

Police are continuing an investigation.

No further details were immediately available.

MARIANNA — It was business as usual last week in Jackson County at the Board of County Commissioners meeting despite allegations the county attorney was involved in a criminal conspiracy that victimized taxpayers.

Frank Baker, 61, who has served as the county attorney since the 1980s, attended the meeting, the commission’s first since Baker was indicted earlier this month. No one brought up the accusations against him, according to County Administrator Ted Lakey.

Baker, along with Terry Dubose and Elwood West, are accused of ripping off the federal government for nearly $4 million while they were in charge of two Panhandle banks that failed in 2010. The indictment was announced Aug. 7, and the three men pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance the next day.

Lakey said he’s under the impression after informal talks with commissioners that they want to wait and see how the case is resolved.

“I think they just feel it’s innocent until proven guilty,” Lakey said.

Commissioner Jeremy Branch made a brief statement on Baker’s indictment on Twitter in response to a reporter’s questions.

“Mr. Baker has provided wise council to Jackson County for decades,” he said. “He is innocent until proven guilty. … I’m sure Mr. Baker looks forward to his chance to defend himself.”

Baker is a member in good standing with the Florida Bar, which is monitoring his case, a spokeswoman for the bar said.

According to the indictment, the Coastal Community Investments, which controlled Coastal Community Bank in Panama City Beach and Bayside Savings Bank in Port St. Joe, put up the two banks as collateral on a $3 million loan in 2007. The loan was in default a year later when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation created a program to make it easier for banks to borrow from other banks.

Baker, who was Coastal Community Investments’ largest shareholder, conspired with Dubose and West, Coastal’s chief executive and chief financial officers, respectively, to falsely represent their eligibility for a loan under the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, the indictment said.

The bank secured a $3.75 million loan to repay the loan in default. The bank defaulted on the second loan in June 2010 and the banks failed the next month. The month after that, the FDIC paid a $3.8 million claim to the bank that issued the second loan.

Now Baker, West and Dubose are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of making false statements and a count of aiding and abetting a false claim against the United States. Lengthy prison sentences are possible if the men are convicted. The case is scheduled to go to trial in February.

DECATUR — Rufus Morrow was at work when he got a phone call with the worst news he could imagine: Shots fired at his daughter's elementary school.

He drove "about 90 mph" to Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy where 800 or so students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade had been evacuated Tuesday in an Atlanta suburb. The police chief says a 20-year-old man with an assault rifle and other weapons was able to slip into the school where visitors must be buzzed in by staff.

The suspect, identified as Michael Brandon Hill, held one or two staff members in the front office captive for a time, the police chief said, making one of them call a local TV station. As officers swarmed the campus outside, he shot at them at least a half a dozen times with an assault rifle from inside the school and they returned fire, said DeKalb County Police Chief Cedric L. Alexander. Hill then surrendered. No one was injured.

Morrow said he almost cried as he told his supervisor why he needed to leave.

"Just the mere thought of what happened at that other elementary school happening here, it was just devastating to my soul," he said, referring to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in December that left 26 people dead, 20 of them children.

He wasn't the only one whose thoughts went to that shooting that has dominated arguments over gun control in the U.S.

"I thought it wasn't going to be all right," said his 10-year-old daughter, Dyamond, a fifth-grader. "I thought he was going to come into the building and hurt everybody like what happened at the other school."

Hill is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Police questioned him for hours at headquarters. There was no information on a possible court date. Alexander said police were unsure of Hill's motive and that Hill, who had an address listed in court records about three miles from the school in Decatur, had no clear ties to the school.

A woman answering the phone at a number listed for Hill said she was his mother but that it wasn't a good time and rushed off the phone.

Other parents also feared the worst for their children.

"I was terrified," said Romaine Hudson as she clung to the hands of her 6-year-old and 8-year-old daughters, both of whom are students at the school. "The only thing I could think of when I first heard of this situation was Sandy Hook."

Authorities believe Hill must have walked in behind someone authorized to be there, Alexander said. He never got past the front office, where he held one or two employees captive for a time. School bookkeeper Antoinette Tuff says she was one of the hostages.

In an interview on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer," Tuff said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons and ammunition.

"He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die," Tuff told ABC.

Speaking Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Tuff said the suspect told her he hadn't taken his medication.

She told him her life story, about how her marriage fell apart after 33 years and the "roller coaster" of opening her own business.

"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives," she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too."

Then Tuff said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down, empty his pockets and backpack on the floor.

"I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it," she said.

She told WSB-TV in Atlanta that she tried to keep Hill talking to prevent him from walking into the hallway or through the school building.

"He had a look on him that he was willing to kill — matter of fact he said it. He said that he didn't have any reason to live and that he knew he was going to die today," Tuff said, adding that Hill told her he was sure he'd be killed because he'd shot at police officers. "I knew that if he got out that door he was gonna kill everybody," she said.

Dramatic television footage showed lines of young students racing out of the building with police and teachers escorting them to safety. They sat outside in a field for a time until school buses came to take them to their waiting parents and other relatives at a nearby Wal-Mart. As each bus arrived a couple hours later, cheers erupted in the store parking lot.

Morrow was one of those parents and held his 10-year-old daughter close to him during an interview after the two were reunited.

"My stomach was in my throat for the whole time until I saw her face on the bus," he said.

His daughter, a fifth-grader, told The Associated Press that a voice came over the intercom saying school was under lockdown and instructed students to get under tables. She said her teacher told the class to sing and pray.

"There were a lot of girls crying, I was feeling scared but I didn't cry. I was just nervous," she said.

Tuff called WSB-TV as it was happening to say the gunman asked her to contact the Atlanta station and police. WSB said during the call, shots were heard in the background. Assignment editor Lacey Lecroy said she spoke with Tuff, who said she was alone with the man and his gun was visible.

"It didn't take long to know that this woman was serious," Lecroy said. "Shots were one of the last things I heard. I was so worried for her."

Complicating the rescue, bomb-sniffing dogs alerted officers to something in the suspect's trunk and investigators believe the man may have been carrying explosives, Alexander said. Officials cut a hole in a fence to make sure students running from the building could get even farther away to a nearby street, he said.

The school has about 870 children enrolled. The academy is named after McNair, an astronaut who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, according to the school's website.

As they waited for their children, many of the parents said they were surprised that anyone could get into the school. Many of them recounted having to ring a buzzer at a door with a camera to get in to drop off or pick up their children.

Students at the school arrived Wednesday morning at nearby McNair High School, where they would attend classes for the time being. The high school's marquee said "Welcome McNair Elementary School Our Prayers Are With You."

PANAMA CITY — Dear lucky winner, we are pleased to inform you that you have won a huge sum of cash in a lottery you never entered in a country you’ve been visited.

Ever wondered who responds to those emails? They’re so obviously scams, right?

But people want to believe it, said Investigator Paul Vecker with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. Vecker investigates scams and frauds.

“All they become is a big loser, and that’s the tragedy,” Vecker said.

In the past few months, Bay County residents have fallen victim to scams and lost tens of thousands of dollars, Vecker said. In an effort to keep Bay Countians from falling victim to such scams, Vecker, who investigates frauds and scams, and Investigator Craig Romans, who investigates financial crimes, will lead an identity theft seminar Thursday.

“We have been working tirelessly at efforts to educate community to avoid getting ripped off,” he said.

United States citizens lost $50 billion — that is billion with a b — to scam artists overseas last year, Vecker said. That’s compared to around $100 million a year in the late 90s, Vecker said.

“It’s getting worse every day, and that is the concern that we in law enforcement have,” he said.

In the vast majority of these cases, the money the victims send to bail their grandson out of a Hungarian jail or as a down payment on a car for sale on Craigslist end up in the hands of people in foreign countries. Once it’s gone, there’s no way Vecker can ever get it back.

“Over 90 percent of the time the people who commit these scams, you can’t even locate them,” Vecker said.

Older people are generally more susceptible to these scams, Vecker said. Someone who has worked hard their whole life and built a solid credit rating, in many cases, would sooner send a check for a couple hundred bucks to someone who claims they haven’t paid an electric bill than actually verify they owe the money because they want to protect their credit score.

“The elderly in our country are the big target of these scams,” he said. “It’s becoming a big problem; as the population of this country gets older, we expect an increase” in frauds and scams.

Vecker and Romans wrote the book on scam prevention, literally. “Scams and Scammers: The Great American Ripoff,” which Vecker and Romans co-authored, will be released soon, Vecker said.

But Thursday the investigators will be sharing what they know about the various frauds and scams they’ve encountered, the most common targets and victims, the scope of the problem and the steps people can take to minimize their risk of becoming a victim in a free seminar at First Baptist Church.

The seminar will last about 60 to 90 minutes and Romans will take questions from attendees afterwards. The seminar is free of charge and open to the public.

WANT TO GO?

-What: BCSO seminar on identity theft, scams and scammers

-Where: First Baptist Church, 640 Harrison Ave., Panama City

-When: Thursday at 6 p.m.

-Cost: Free and open to the public

PANAMA CITY -- Thomas Monroe Lee, 40, of Gadsden, Ala., was sentenced Wednesday to serve 10 years and one month in federal prison for using the Internet  in an attempt to persuade, induce and enticea minor to engage in sexual activity.

According to a release from the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, evidence presented during a three-day trial in April proved that, on June14, 2012, law enforcement officers posed as a 14-year-old boy named Skylar and responded to an advertisement entitled “Last call!!!!– m4m – 1840 (PCB/Lagunabeach),”which had been posted under the“Casual Encounters” link on Craigslist. Over the next 48 hours, Lee engaged in email chats and text messages with Skylar that were sexual in nature, prosecutors said. Subsequently, Lee drove to a location where he had arranged to meet Skylar and transport him back to his residence to engage in sexual activity. Once Lee arrived at the location, officers from various law enforcement agencies arrested him for attempted online enticement of a child.

Lee also was sentenced to a fine in the amount of $1,000, a $100 special monetary assessment, and a 7-year term of supervised release, which he will be required to serve upon completion of his sentence.