Southwest
Arizona grandmother indicted in death of epileptic teen kept in makeshift cage
The grandmother of a teenage girl with epilepsy who died after police said she had been locked in a makeshift cage for extended periods of time has been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced.
Virginia Lujan, 55, has been charged with child abuse and other crimes following the death last month of her granddaughter, who suffered from a rare form of epilepsy and had cognitive impairments causing her to function at the level of a 3-year-old.
Lujan called 911 on Jan. 20 to report that her granddaughter was unresponsive at her two-story townhouse in Tempe near U.S. 60 and Mill Avenue, prosecutors said.
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When officers arrived, they found the girl lying on the living room floor with marks and bruising on multiple parts of her body. She was transported to a hospital, where she died the following day.
Virginia Lujan, 55, has been charged with child abuse and other crimes after her granddaughter died after being unresponsive in her home.
“No child should ever have to endure suffering,” Ken McCoy, the city’s police chief, said the day after her death, per Fox 10.
“We are committed to uncovering the truth and seeking justice on her behalf. The tragic loss of a child is a profound reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the most vulnerable in our community.”
Police said that they discovered a bunk bed that had been adapted into a makeshift enclosure where the victim was kept for extended periods of time, along with grossly unsanitary conditions throughout the home.
Police, according to Fox 10 Phoenix, described Lujan’s home as “disorderly and filthy,” with trash littering the home’s floors and dead insects such as cockroaches being seen in various parts of the home.
The grandmother of a teenage girl with epilepsy who died after police said she had been locked in a makeshift cage for extended periods of time has been indicted by a grand jury in Arizona. Police speak at a press briefing the day after her death. (Fox 10 Phoenix)
When investigating where the girl had been kept, police discovered an elevated bed frame, similar to bunk beds inside, with the exception that there was no bed or mattress on the bottom, according to court documents cited by Fox 10.
Instead, the tall bed frame created a space underneath the top bunk.
A large rail, large enough to enclose the long right side of the bed and another rail with plastic baby gates attached to it were found by this bed. These items, together, were attached to the frame as walls for an enclosure or cage, the outlet reported.
These components were held together with plastic zip ties. Police also said there was human waste on the floor within the enclosure.
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The victim, according to investigators, was one of five children belonging to 33-year-old Jami Hodges, Lujan’s daughter. They ranged in age from 2 to 15 years.
In 2021, Hodges transferred four of her five children’s guardianship to Lujan, and at the time of the victim’s death, she had moved in with her mother because of structural issues that forced her out of her former home, per Fox 10.
They lived in a cramped space inside her three-bedroom townhouse, police said.
The family lived in a “disorderly and filthy” three-bedroom townhouse, police said. (Fox 10 Phoenix)
Hodges and her 2-year-old daughter slept in the living room on the main floor while Lujan had her own bedroom on the second floor. The rest of the children shared the remaining two bedrooms, investigators wrote in the court documents.
They also wrote that none of Hodges’ children were enrolled in or attending school.
Hodges, according to police reports cited by Fox 10, said that when she returned home from the dentist earlier on Jan. 21, she noticed that the victim was “acting off” and that she saw a large rash or discoloration under the victim’s armpits and on the back of her legs.
The girl later took a turn, and Tempe Police Department officers and crews with Tempe Fire Medical Rescue were called to the home at around 9 p.m.
Lujan told first responders that the victim had fallen a few days prior, investigators wrote.
The victim was found covered in bruises on various parts of her body. The bruises were described as being in various stages of healing, while dried blood was found inside her right ear and her face appeared swollen.
Tempe Police Department vehicles. Police from the department responded to the scene. (Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The victim was taken to the hospital and was declared dead hours later.
Hodges was arrested but was released pending charges.
Lujan is currently being held on a $500,000 secured appearance bond, per the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
She is also charged with tampering with physical evidence, tampering with a witness and three counts of contributing to the dependency of a child.
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Southwest
Savannah Guthrie spotted in NYC as search for missing mother enters sixth week with few answers
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TUCSON, Ariz. — “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie is back in New York City as the search for her missing mother enters its sixth week with little publicly known progress in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona.
Guthrie was photographed in public for the first time since her mother’s suspected abduction, alongside husband Mike Feldman and their young son in the Big Apple Sunday, days after an emotional reunion with her NBC colleagues and more than a month after her 84-year-old mother Nancy was last seen.
Nancy’s disappearance shocked the country — especially when the FBI released disturbing surveillance video of a masked man on her doorstep.
Savannah Guthrie spent weeks in Tucson with her siblings as the investigation played out — before she and her older sister, Annie, added bouquets of yellow flowers to a growing display at the foot of their mother’s driveway. She quietly flew home to New York last week.
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Savannah Guthrie is seen out in New York with her husband Michael Feldman as the “Today” show anchor makes her first public appearance more than five weeks after the suspected abduction of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. (ASPN / BACKGRID)
Sunday marked five weeks since the suspected kidnapping.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, which is now being overseen by a task force consisting of local detectives and FBI agents.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
No suspects have been publicly identified.
A masked man who appeared on Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera around the time authorities said she was taken is described as being of average height and build and carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack.
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Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, are pictured Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
He appeared to be armed with a handgun as well. Law enforcement sources said he visited Nancy Guthrie’s home at least once in advance of her disappearance, wearing a similar disguise.
Other identifying details are scarce.
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The use of cadaver dogs is also on hold, according to authorities, who re-canvassed Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood as recently as last week.
When asked if that meant they believed she is still alive, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos declined to discuss evidence in the case.
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“Anything is possible,” he told Fox News Digital.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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There’s a reward of more than $1.2 million in play for information that leads to Nancy’s recovery.
Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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Southwest
FBI subpoenas 2020 Arizona voting docs as federal push into election administration widens
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An Arizona state lawmaker revealed Monday that federal authorities subpoenaed him for records related to the 2020 election, marking the second publicly confirmed jurisdiction the Department of Justice is investigating over the matter.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, said in a social media post he received the subpoena for material related to the state Senate’s 2020 audit last week and complied with it.
“Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County,” Petersen wrote. “The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”
The request represents an expansion of a federal probe tied to 2020 after the DOJ initially targeted Fulton County, Georgia. The development also comes as President Donald Trump has grown increasingly outspoken about election security in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms, renewing his attention on disputes stemming from the last presidential race.
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An election worker removes a ballot from an envelope to count and inspect the pages inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Petersen made the revelation after President Donald Trump shared a Just the News report about the subpoena on Truth Social, writing, “Great!!! FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands.”
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the election probe to Fox News, saying the DOJ is looking at a large tranche of Arizona data from 2020 and 2024.
President Donald Trump listens during an event about the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
The White House directed Fox News Digital to the FBI on Monday when asked for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an elected Democrat, said the new investigation was based on claims that courts and state investigators have proven wrong.
“What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry,” Mayes said in a statement. “It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”
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Attendees listen as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speaks at an “Only Citizens Vote” bus tour rally advocating passage of the SAVE Act at Upper Senate Park outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The subpoena comes as the president increasingly focuses on election security ahead of the 2026 midterms, telling Congress in a social media post on Sunday that he will not sign any legislation into law until it passes the SAVE America Act.
The bill’s primary purpose is to require voters nationwide to show physical identification to prove citizenship to vote in federal elections. The version of the bill Trump is pushing would also ban mail-in ballots except for the military and in other extenuating circumstances.
Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county, was a hotbed for accusations of voter fraud in 2020. Fulton County, Georgia, faced similar accusations, with the DOJ launching a separate investigation into the 2020 election earlier this year.
Trump lost Arizona in 2020 by about 0.3 percentage points. The president refused to concede, and his legal team brought a series of lawsuits alleging vote-counting irregularities, but none were successful.
Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Wisconsin man who fled Border Patrol checkpoint in stolen car killed after shootout in Texas, police say
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FIRST ON FOX: A Wisconsin man driving a stolen vehicle was killed Wednesday after he fled through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint and led authorities on a vehicle chase and shootout in Texas.
The incident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at the Sierra Blanca checkpoint in the Big Bend Sector between El Paso and Van Horn, a remote area.
James Douglas McMillan, 33, of Greenfield, Wis., took off from the checkpoint after a Border Patrol drug K-9 alerted to the vehicle and agents directed McMillan to pull over for a secondary search, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
A migrant walks through the Rio Grande as he crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, March 13, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. On Wednesday, a man was shot and killed by authorities near El Paso after fleeing through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. (John Moore/Getty Images)
During the car chase, McMillan opened fire out of his vehicle window at DPS troopers and other authorities from several law enforcement agencies and civilian vehicles, DPS said.
“As law enforcement returned fire, DPS Troopers performed a precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver and successfully stopped the suspect vehicle,” a DPS statement said.
McMillan barricaded himself in his vehicle and eventually pointed his weapon towards officers, prompting officers to open fire, authorities said.
He was shot and killed. No law enforcement officers or civilians were hurt.
Investigators determined McMillan was driving a vehicle reported stolen in Arizona. The shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, with assistance from the FBI and USBP.
The shooting involved Border Patrol agents and DPS troopers. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)
In January, a man suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants was shot by federal officers during a gunfire exchange in Arizona.
Patrick Gary Schlegel, 34, fled from authorities on foot and allegedly shot at a CBP helicopter and at agents, Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, said at the time.
A U.S. Border Patrol officer watches a USBP helicopter. (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images)
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Schlegal, a U.S. citizen from Arizona, underwent surgery and survived. No one else was harmed, authorities said.
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