WJPA News

It was a two hour preliminary hearing that produced a decision by a judge to hold all charges for court against a North Strabane Township teen and his mother for the killing of Karoline Heintz, a Peters Township teen heading off to PennWest California to play soccer and begin her college career. Royce Moser, 18 of North Strabane Township, will face homicide and other related charges. Rachel Moser, 56 of Beallsville, will face hindering apprehension, evidence tampering and related charges. The hearing centered on detective evidence from countywide license plate reader cameras, and video evidence from California Borough that traced the Mosers bringing Heintz’s SUV with her body inside and dumping it near the California Public Library. Phone extraction evidence corroborated the video evidence. Detectives were able to extract internet search evidence from Royce’s phone looking for information on how to remove fingerprints, how long Ring video is stored and information about the death penalty. A Pennsylvania State Police detective that conducted interviews with the pair, hours after the killing, testified that Rachel Moser received a call from Royce asking for help and how she helped him transport the body and gather belongings from his home to have Royce stay at her home after the incident. In her interview with Royce, he said that Karoline and he were talking in his father’s driveway. She said something that got him upset. He told her to wait, he went into the house, retrieved a knife and returned and stabbed her. Karoline’s mother was seen in court, sobbing often as evidence was presented. The family was whisked away from reporters at the end of the hearing. Royce and Rachel Moser will be formally arraigned on October 13.

Washington County 911 says a school bus in North Franklin Township had to be towed Tuesday afternoon, after it went over an embankment.  They say it happened on Mounts Road just before four o’clock, when a school bus went off the road and partially over an embankment as it was backing out of a driveway.  There were no injuries reported.  It wasn’t clear at this time if any students were on board at the time.

Washington County Coroner Tim Warco says a man found dead in a vehicle in Washington County is believed to have died of natural causes.  Warco says forty-nine-year-old Michael Main of Bulger was found dead in his vehicle on Harmon Creek Road in Burgettstown on Monday afternoon.  Warco says officials first thought Main died in a crash, but the autopsy revealed no trauma, so his death has been ruled natural causes, although the incident remains under investigation.

Crews from Pennsylvania American Water continue work to repair a 24-inch water main break at North College and Chestnut Street in the City of Washington.   Company officials say water was turned off around 2:30 Tuesday morning, affecting service to some ninety-six customers.  Customers impacted by the outage include those on Walnut Street, Spruce Street, Chestnut Street, Shaffer Street, Cherry Street, Forrest Street, Lincoln Street, and Pine Street.  Officials say they expect repairs to be completed by early Wednesday morning.  They say an updated Code Red will be sent to customers.  Company officials say they appreciate the patience of their customers during the repair process.

Hanover Township supervisors have once again continued the conditional use hearing for a proposed data center in Starpointe Business Park. During a three-hour hearing Monday night, Prime Data Centers, LLC answered questions about their proposed development, which would include seven buildings and a power generation facility. The hearing was standing room only, and attendees had mixed opinions. Emanuel Paris, the Vice President of Alex E. Paris Contracting Company, says he supports the data center, and the development supports the company. He explains that Starpointe Business Park is a great location for a data center, and it will cause limited disruption to residents. David Bentrem, a resident and farmer, says that data centers can have negative effects on animals and there are too many unanswered questions. Other attendees, like Mark Dumbovich, want to learn more about the proposed data center. Dumbovich says that he is neutral, but he believes that the board of supervisors should have an independent council to make sense of the information from Prime Data Centers, LLC. Solicitor Dennis Makel explains that they wanted to limit Monday night’s hearing to three hours, but it is far from over. Supervisors refused to comment after Monday’s hearing. The hearing will continue on September 21, 24, 29, and 30 at 6:00 PM at the Hanover Township Fire Department Hall.

A third man accused of sex related crimes against juveniles in Peters Township faced a judge and will have his charges sent to common pleas court. Charles Usner, 24 of Mt. Lebanon faces 8 felony charges including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16, statutory sexual assault, photographing or filming sex acts on a computer and additional felonies. During the sometimes tense 90 minute hearing, defense attorney Lee Rothman tried to have charges dismissed because he said his client was misled by the victim. Police evidence stated that the victim was 15 at the time of an assault that occurred at Peters Lake Park in July of 2025. Rothman said that the victim portrayed himself to be 18 years old on a Grindr social media account. Usner said he saw “red flags” but proceeded to have the encounter. Rothman argued that the victim misled his client about his age. Police testimony indicated that parents of the victim made police aware of the incident when they found evidence of the encounter on the victim’s phone. Police detailed how they found recordings of a sexual encounter between the victim and Usner. This case was discovered during the investigation into a sextortion case against Zachariah Meyers that was charged earlier this year. Police say that Meyers coerced the victim to have sex with men and provide pictures. They indicated that the victim contacted Meyers about the encounter with Usner telling him that “I got vids”. Usner is being held in the Washington County Jail on $500,000 bond. A request to reduce the bond was denied by the judge. Usner will be formally arraigned on September 29.

City Fire Chief Chris Richer updated Washington City Council on the progress of the Washington Fire Department Training Facility. Richer says that the facility located on the old Ramage athletic field in the Tylerdale section of the city now has two buildings for training. One is a three story house structure that mimics many of the homes found in the city. It has steps, narrow hallways and multiple rooms. The second building is a live fire training structure where firefighters hone their skills for search and rescue and survival in a safe environment. Currently firefighters are training at the grounds. Richer says this is Firefighter Survival month. Firefighters can be seen training on how to escape a burning building or how to rescue a firefighter trapped in a burning building. Richer says that several neighboring departments are expressing interest in using the facility. He is grateful to council for granting the department the land and assisting in the buildout of the facility.

(AP) – A whistleblower for the U.S. Postal Service is warning that a new mail ballot system being hastily built to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting that method of voting could lead to the rejection of huge numbers of mail ballots. The whistleblower made the allegation anonymously in documents submitted by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal to the Postal Service. Blumenthal says the disclosure shows Trump is trying to sabotage mail voting. A federal judge has barred the Postal Service from making the changes for the midterms, but that case is being appealed, possibly to the Supreme Court.  (Photo:  AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has hit targets in Iran, and Tehran has fired missiles and drones in response. The latest strikes Tuesday show how hostilities have flared once again in an intermittent war that has lasted more than six months. The U.S. strikes, and others on Sunday, abruptly ended a month without military action and threaten to fully reprise the conflict that’s spiked global oil prices and posed political problems for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections. The renewed fighting comes after President Donald Trump had appeared to pivot toward trying to bend Iran to his will through economic sanctions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job. That’s according to the White House on Monday. No reason was given for Driscoll’s departure, but tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported. It marks the latest in a series of shakeups of the military leadership, with the Army especially seeing major upheaval. A Driscoll ally was ousted as the service’s top uniformed leader in April. Under the new acting Army chief of staff, the service is pulling the plug on a drone modernization program that Driscoll had heralded. Driscoll is a friend of Vice President JD Vance and an Iraq war veteran.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — The judge in the Lindsay Clancy trial has told jurors to keep deliberating after they said they can’t reach a unanimous decision on whether to hold the Massachusetts mother criminally responsible for killing her three young children. Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse, admits to the 2023 killings but claims postpartum psychosis drove her actions. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing. The jury is in its fourth day of deliberations. Tuesday was the first time they indicated they were at an impasse. If there’s a hung jury and a mistrial is declared, prosecutors will need to decide whether to try Clancy again.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — The bodies of two friends — a Texas chiropractor and a martial arts studio owner — have been found after a major flash flood swept through the Grand Canyon. Officials said Monday that one person remains unaccounted for after about 80 others were rescued over the weekend. Park officials did not release identities, but the families of the two deceased men identified them as John Giusti and Brent Rosenkranz. THey say their buddy Saturday’s flash flood severely damaged the only water pipeline into the canyon. Officials have barred tourists from staying at lodges and hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park and issued emergency water restrictions for year-round residents. Officials say they used the park’s permit system to track the number of missing people.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams are searching for thousands of people still missing after catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China. The disaster has left over 1,000 dead. Nepal’s disaster agency reported 987 deaths and 3,916 missing, including 583 foreigners. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing. The scale of last week’s disaster is hampering rescue efforts, with landslides and destroyed roads cutting off remote areas. In Nepal, rescuers are racing to reach hundreds of hydropower workers trapped in tunnels. The Aug. 26 disaster began with a chain of events high in the Himalayas. A glacial collapse sent large amounts of rock, ice and meltwater into valleys below, triggering powerful floods downstream.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has launched a large aerial assault in and around Ukraine’s capital that has killed at least 11 people. The attack that began Monday evening and continued into Tuesday also wounded more than a dozen other people including three children. It was the sixth consecutive day of Russian attacks on Kyiv. The strikes hit civilian infrastructure and residential buildings. Odesa also faced attacks which damaged infrastructure and wounded one person. Ukrainian forces said they destroyed or suppressed 199 aerial targets.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. The verdict Monday marks the first and only conviction in a case that has gripped hip-hop fans for years. In 1996, Shakur was on his way to perform at a club in Las Vegas when a Cadillac pulled up beside him and music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. Gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later. Davis is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death. The case went cold until recent years, when interviews Davis gave and his 2019 tell-all memoir revived it.