Austin, TX
Heidi Broussard case: Lifetime movie about Austin murder, kidnapping to air Sept. 23
AUSTIN, Texas – An Austin murder and kidnapping case from 2019 is now the plot of a Lifetime movie premiering Saturday, Sept. 23.
“Stolen Baby: The Murder of Heidi Broussard” stars Emily Osment and Anna Hopkins.
Here’s a recap of the case:
Best friends 37-year-old Magen Fieramusca and 33-year-old Heidi Broussard had known each other since they were kids. The two appeared to be pregnant at the same time.
After Heidi gave birth to her daughter, Margo Carey, they both went missing a few weeks later on Dec. 12, 2019. This set off over a week of frantic searching.
“What we want is we want our babies back home,” Tammy Broussard, Heidi’s mother, said in 2019.
Heidi Broussard. Photo courtesy: Tammy Broussard
According to Austin police, Fieramusca visited Broussard and her three-week-old daughter in their South Austin apartment and strangled her with a dog leash. She put Broussard’s body in her trunk and drove to her ex-boyfriend’s Houston-area home and tried to pass off Margo as their daughter.
During a search, officers found Broussard’s body, and baby Margo unharmed.
Fieramusca appeared to be pregnant at the same time, though authorities never confirmed if she was. Investigators listed her motive as “maternal desire.”
“We appreciate all the love that everyone is showing, I mean we really, really do, it’s wonderful to see people come together like this. I know Heidi would love it also,” said Ty Carey, the father of Broussard’s boyfriend, at a December 2019 vigil not long after Heidi was found.
Magen Fieramusca pleads guilty to murder of Austin mother Heidi Broussard
Fieramusca was charged with murdering her friend and kidnapping her daughter. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 55 years in prison and waived her right to appeal as part of a plea deal. Her capital murder charge was also brought down to first degree murder.
“I think it is difficult, if not impossible, to find justice in any sort of resolution to this horrendous crime. Ms. Fieramusca, the fact is that by your actions, you have deprived an innocent child, an innocent baby, of the opportunity of growing up with her mother next to her. You have destroyed an entire family. And no matter what the sentence and no matter how long, no matter how harsh, nothing can change that. Nothing can make this family whole again,” said Judge Selena Alvarenga, with 460th District Court in her sentencing in February 2023.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Fieramusca will be eligible for parole in 2047. She projected release date 2074.
Austin, TX
Texas Supreme Court overturns ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in lawsuit
(AP) – The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court ruling that state Attorney General Ken Paxton testify in a whistleblower lawsuit at the heart of impeachment charges brought against him in 2023.
The court on Friday said Paxton’s office does not dispute any issue in the lawsuit by four former Paxton employees and agreed to any judgment in the case.
“In a major win for the State of Texas, the state Supreme Court has sided with Attorney General Paxton against former OAG employees whose effort to prolong costly, politically-motivated litigation against the agency has wasted public resources for years,” a statement from Paxton’s office said.
An attorney for one of the plaintiffs declined immediate comment, and a second attorney did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
The former employees allege they were improperly fired or forced out for bringing to the FBI allegations that Paxton was misusing his office to protect a friend and campaign donor, who in turn, they said, was helping the attorney general to conceal an extramarital affair.
The Supreme Court ruling noted that the Texas governor and Legislature have expressed a desire to hear testimony from the witnesses prior to agreeing to appropriate funds to settle the lawsuit.
The court said forcing Paxton, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, Chief of Staff Lesley French Henneke and senior advisor Michelle Smith to testify earlier could improperly be used for legislative purposes in deciding any appropriation.
Under the preliminary deal, Paxton agreed to apologize to the former employees for calling them “rogue” employees, settle the case for $3.3 million and ask the state to pay for it, prompting the state House to reject the request and begin its own investigation, leading to the vote to impeach him.
Paxton was ultimately acquitted after a Senate trial.
The Supreme Court termed its ruling conditional upon the lower trial court complying with the decision, while saying it is “confident the trial court will comply” with the order.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Austin, TX
This Texas city ranks among 10 best to live in the US. See full list, how others scored
See how the Austin skyline changes annually from ACL Fest 2024
It’s another year of Austin City Limits Music Festival, which means we have an updated photo from 2024 to show the change in Austin’s skyline since 2005.
A Texas city has been named among the top ten U.S. cities to live in over the next two years.
Ten Texas cities were included in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-2026 Best Places to Live list. For the annual rankings, U.S. News analyzed 150 major cities in the U.S. based on quality of life, job market, value of living and people’s desire to live in the area.
How did your city fare on the list? Here’s a breakdown of the data.
LIST: 10 best US cities to live
Texas’ capital secured a spot in the top 10 places to live, as determined by U.S. News.
- Naples, Florida
- Boise, Idaho
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Austin, Texas
- Boulder, Colorado
Austin offers healthy balance of work and pleasure, US News says
Austin had an overall score of 6.8 out of 10, compared to Naples’ score of 7.1. The Texas capital also scored 6.8 in the quality of life index, with a value index score of 6.3.
“With the slogan ‘Keep Austin Weird,’ this Texas city is laid-back to the point that if you’re dressing up, it must be a life event,” the U.S. News analysis says. “People here enjoy the outdoors, even more so with their dogs. Austin has a contagious vibrancy and enthusiasm.”
U.S. News notes Austin’s strongest assets are a mix of work and pleasure. The number of companies headquartered in Austin makes it attractive to working professionals, especially those in technology, government, education, and health care. But the capital is far from being “all work, no play.” Its claim as the live music capital of the world invites music lovers to take a listen, whether at the airport, along streets downtown, or at one of the approximate 200 venues throughout the area.
Austin also ranked no. 32 on U.S. News’ Best Places to Retire in 2025 list.
LIST: Best Texas cities to live
Here are the rankings and scores U.S. News gave for the ten Texas cities included in the list:
Ranking
City
Overall Score
Quality of Life
Value Index
#9
Austin
6.8
6.8
6.3
#48
McAllen
6.4
6.6
7.6
#62
El Paso
6.3
6.5
7.3
#77
Corpus Christi
6.2
5.8
7.0
#87
Brownsville
6.2
6.2
7.7
#89
San Antonio
6.1
6.1
6.8
#95
Dallas
6.1
6.4
5.6
#97
Houston
6.1
5.9
6.2
#99
Beaumont
6.1
5.5
7.3
#107
Killeen
6.0
5.9
7.3
Austin, TX
(2013) Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin •
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