Southwest
Texas homeowners who finally evicted squatter 'treated like criminals'
After finally evicting a contractor-turned-squatter from their new home, a pair of Texas homeowners said that law enforcement made them feel like wrongdoers throughout their two-month ordeal.
Yudith Matthews and Abram Mendez, who bought the San Antonio home to accommodate their growing family, said they are “relieved” that the contractor has finally cleared out the last of his things. On Wednesday night, their family got together to secure and board up their new home to ensure the squatter — or other potential intruders — didn’t sneak back inside.
Until this week’s long-fought victory, they said they felt “powerless” amid a legal system that “takes advantage of homeowners… and the working class” over “entitled” squatters — even, they said, when their safety was jeopardized.
“If I [tried] to protect my house, I [would] get arrested,” Matthews told Fox News Digital. “Your heart is about to jump out of your chest. You’re concerned, you don’t sleep. What else is going to happen? How much damage is he going to do?”
TEXAS HOMEOWNERS FURIOUS AFTER SQUATTER REFUSES TO LEAVE PROPERTY, POLICE WON’T REMOVE HIM: ‘TRUST NO ONE’
Navy veteran Abram Mendez and his wife Yudith Matthews said they planned to move into their larger house in San Antonio, Texas, on Easter. That timeline was vastly skewed by their long-fought battle with a contractor-turned-squatter. (Yudith Matthews)
Other than “unloading some materials,” Matthews and Mendez told Fox News Digital the handyman never completed any of the work he was hired to do.
The married couple said they have incurred about $17,000 in damages, utilities and court fees, clearing out the “last actual dollars” in their account. The squatter allegedly destroyed new plumbing work in their garage, barbecued inside with a propane tank, sprayed mahogany cabinets with a bleach mixture, smoked and urinated indoors and broke doors and molding throughout the house to facilitate his legal entry and exit.
The couple said they fell in love with the seven-bedroom, three-bathroom home in a peaceful neighborhood and purchased it in November. They couldn’t wrap their heads around why someone would “destroy it” needlessly.
TEXAS HOMEOWNERS CONFRONT SQUATTERS, SAY POLICE WON’T HELP
Matthews and Mendez said their squatter broke multiple doors and windows in the home so that he could continue to enter and exit the property. (Yudith Matthews)
“Out of spite? To someone you don’t even know? Are you taking the world’s anger out on one person? [Is it] because they don’t need to pay? They just walk away and they are not responsible,” Matthews said.
Allegedly, their squatter bought a blender to leave running throughout the day during his unwanted stay and intentionally turned off their new freezer, letting meat and broken eggs spoil inside. Matthews and Mendez were ordered to restore electricity and water to the home and pay fines after, they claim, the squatter and his female accomplice stole water and electricity.
Even obtaining a writ of possession — a formal document that a property owner posts on their door to inform a tenant or squatter that they must leave in 24 hours or be removed by force by police — cost an additional $300.
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The squatter shined high-powered flashlights into the homeowners’ eyes, menaced them with bleach and even flashed a knife during their repeated standoffs. (Yudith Matthews)
“All they care about is bail money, all they care about is bond money, all they care about is fees — they were ‘feeing’ us to death,” Mendez, a father of three, told Fox News Digital. “As long as the squatter is off the street and in someone’s home, that’s going to generate revenue — lawyer’s fees, other things that will stimulate the local economy. But it’s all footed by a taxpaying homeowner who’s worked hard, who has little income or some equity where the best case is to flip it.”
If the contractor had paid a fee and appealed the judge’s decision, they said, their ordeal could have persisted past this week. But by a “stroke of luck,” they said, he was late to a Tuesday court hearing and narrowly missed the window.
The contractor, a man in his forties who the couple said has gout, had asked to stay on a couch inside the house. When they realized he had amassed an alarming number of possessions inside, they called the San Antonio Police Department.
BLUE STATE SQUATTERS PUT ON NOTICE WITH ‘AGGRESSIVE’ LAW AND ORDER BILL: ‘PEOPLE ARE GETTING KILLED’
The couple and their families supervised while the squatter finally loaded his things into moving vans — including four guitars he’d installed special mounts for inside the home — and moved his car and motorcycle off the property. (Yudith Matthews)
He had not stayed in the home for the requisite 30 days to be considered a squatter under Texas property law when police were first called to the property on Feb. 29, but the couple claim officers made no efforts to verify his opposing account, or even check his identification.
“[The squatter] said, ‘No, I live here’ and the police said right away, ‘You’re the resident, you have the right to live here,’” Mendez recalled. “The police came so many times, we have him red-handed, we might have him on video, but police just walk away and say it’s a civil matter.”
Matthews and Mendez said they fell in love with the seven-bedroom, three-bathroom home. The quiet neighborhood, nearby stream and large yard made the property a great place to raise their children, ages 11, 10 and 8. (Yudith Matthews)
“That’s a cop out,” Mendez said. “Police are entitling these people to a right they’re not entitled to… they don’t quite care because they know the lieutenant is going to cover them, they don’t want to write a report.”
The couple said they have filed complaints with the San Antonio Police Department after one encounter where an officer allegedly raised his voice, saying that he “didn’t have time to deal with this.”
“You feel so disappointed, you don’t even bother calling the police when they treat you like you are a criminal,” Matthews said.
Previously, footage of the couple confronting their squatter as he entered the home through a propped window was aired on “FOX & Friends.” After that encounter, the couple were prohibited from entering the home.
Pictured is a crude propane cooking setup the squatter used inside the Texas couple’s home. (Yudith Matthews)
From that point on, the legal process and surveying the property became a full-time job.
“My husband did runs around the house, [we are] taking turns to supervise the property,” Matthews said. “[The squatter] took from us family time, so many events, so many fun things that we do with the kids on the weekend… it’s very unfair. Our kids, they get really stressed.”
After serving seven years as an intelligence officer in the Navy, many of them on active duty tours in Asia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Mendez is fortunate enough to be retired. He couldn’t have managed the nightmare otherwise, he said.
“He decided to keep breaking the windows, breaking the sheet rock, destroying the appliances that we have in there — who is going to be responsible for that?” Matthews asked. (Yudith Matthews)
“How do families where mom and dad have to work — what a nightmare,” Matthews remarked. “Imagine a family who are working 9-5 by themselves with zero support, dealing with this type of thing.”
In one of dozens of visits San Antonio police made to the property, per records provided by the department, the couple claimed the squatter flashed a knife at them. Matthews and Mendez say arriving police “kicked the knife into a corner” and “told him he had a right” to the weapon as a tenant in the house.
Pictured are dishes left in the sink by the squatter after he packed up his things and left this week. (Yudith Matthews)
Matthews claims he shined high-wattage flashlights in her face and even threatened to spray her with bleach in one of their many clashes.
“We are fighting, risking our lives because we don’t get protection from the police, the government, anyone,” she told Fox News Digital. “We saved up enough money, we’re in our mid-forties, we’re focusing on our home and now someone is stealing hard-earned decades of money from us for their laziness. That’s it, they’re lazy.”
“We saved up enough money, we’re in our mid-forties, we’re focusing on our home and now someone is stealing hard-earned decades of money from us for their laziness.”
After no less than four court appearances and paying a $300 fee, the couple were finally able to post an eviction notice on their home’s door. (Yudith Matthews)
Officer Ricardo Guzman of the SAPD told Fox News Digital that law enforcement’s “hands are tied” in these situations.
“A big thing about these squatting things, the hard part on us is the squatter’s rights. Once they move in and they have property, even if it’s an abandoned building, that’s their property,” he told Fox News Digital. “There are laws preventing us from grabbing their property and throwing them out. That’s where it becomes a civil matter, the owner will have to go through the eviction process.”
The unwelcome guest used boards and nails to permanently prop open several windows of the home, which he would use to enter and exit. (Yudith Matthews)
Although the worst is over for the couple, they are still in the process of obtaining a restraining order against their squatter and inventorying damage and stolen items, they said.
“The law did not work for us,” Mendez said. “It eventually worked for us — but after a month of what bills, what losses. [Now] that’s more elbow grease, more sanding, more painting — time eaten up by a squatter who has nothing to lose because the police entitled him by saying, ‘You have a right to stay there.’”
Debris left behind by a squatter is pictured in Yudith Matthews and Abram Mendez’s home. The couple said the contractor installed an extra door in their living room — and brought it with him when he left the premises this week. (Yudith Matthews)
Fox News Digital could not reach the squatter, or an attorney who had represented him in previous criminal court cases, for comment.
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Southwest
Body found during search for missing Texas teen Camila Mendoza Olmos as another teen girl disappears
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A body was found Tuesday evening as authorities in Bexar County, Texas, grapple with a series of disappearances involving teen girls who all went missing within a week.
The body was found during the search for 19-year-old Camila Olmos, though police said it is too early to determine whether the remains belong to her.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference that investigators had “just recently found a body in a field” around 4:40 to 4:45 p.m., adding that the medical examiner will determine both the identity of the body and the cause and manner of death.
The body was found by a joint team of sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents in an area of tall grass near a landscaping business, a few hundred yards from Olmos’ home, according to Salazar.
MISSING CAMILA MENDOZ OLMOS: DASHCAM CAPTURES LAST SIGHTING OF TEXAS TEEN WHO VANISHED CHRISTMAS EVE
Camila Olmos was reported missing on Christmas Eve. (Bexar County Sheriff)
A firearm was recovered near the body, which authorities said had been an item of interest during the search.
Salazar said investigators do not currently suspect murder and noted there were indicators consistent with possible self-harm, though he stressed it is too early to draw conclusions while the scene is still being processed.
Olmos was last seen leaving her home in far northwest Bexar County around 7 a.m. on Dec. 24, authorities said. Her case came as two other girls were reported missing in the area. Fourteen-year-old Sofia Gabriela Peters-Cobos has since been found safe, while 17-year-old Angelique Johnson remains missing, according to police.
Law enforcement has said there is no confirmed connection between the cases.
MISSING CAMILA MENDOZ OLMOS: DASHCAM CAPTURES LAST SIGHTING OF TEXAS TEEN WHO VANISHED CHRISTMAS EVE
Angelique Johnson, from San Antonio, Texas, was reported missing. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
Texas Department of Public Safety said the Clear Alert for Olmos has been discontinued, though authorities urged anyone with information related to the cases or the whereabouts of Angelique Johnson to contact the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and the San Antonio Police Department did not respond immediately to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl announced on Tuesday he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia.
Kyl, 83, became one of Arizona’s most prominent Republicans during a career that spanned nearly three decades across both chambers of Congress, including a stint as Senate minority whip.
“I was blessed to represent the people of Arizona in Congress and to have numerous other opportunities to contribute to the political and civic life of our nation and state,” Kyl said in a statement. “However, the time has come for me to withdraw from public life. I have been diagnosed with a neurological disease manifesting as dementia.”
Kyl represented Arizona’s 4th Congressional District in the House from 1987 to 1995 before serving in the U.S. Senate from 1995 to 2013.
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Former Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl announced on Tuesday he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
After leaving the Senate, Kyl joined the lobbying firm Covington and Burling, before being appointed in 2018 by then-Gov. Doug Ducey to fill the vacancy caused by the death of former Sen. John McCain.
Kyl held the seat for several months in the Senate before rejoining the firm in 2019, where he helped guide the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The longtime Arizona lawmaker described himself as “a very fortunate man” despite the diagnosis.
FORMER COLORADO SEN. BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL DEAD AT 92
Former Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, left, and Bruce Babbitt, right, former Arizona Republican governor and secretary of the Interior, wave to the crowd as they are recognized during Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s state of the state address Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“My family and I now head down a path filled with moments of joy and increasing difficulties,” he stated. “I am grateful beyond expression for their love and support, in these coming days as in all the days of my life.”
Kyl moved to Arizona as an 18-year-old freshman to attend the University of Arizona, where he met his wife.
The university said Kyl devoted more than two decades to public service, leaving a lasting impact on water policy, national defense and intelligence.
“His leadership, integrity, and commitment to service reflect the highest ideals of public life,” the university said in a statement.
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Former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., announced he is withdrawing from public life after being diagnosed with dementia. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Kyl gave “decades of his life” serving Arizona, adding that he’s grateful for the former GOP senator’s “commitment to our state and country.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Girl begged for help months before alleged killing by father, girlfriend — earlier abuse case closed: report
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Newly released police records show that 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste pleaded for help months before she was allegedly killed by her father and his girlfriend in Arizona, revealing an earlier abuse report that was closed despite documented injuries.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, a Phoenix police report details a 911 call made from a local gas station in October 2024, roughly nine months before Rebekah was found unresponsive. The report states the child approached a gas station clerk and begged for help, prompting officers to respond.
Police wrote that Rebekah told officers her father’s girlfriend, Anicia Woods, had hit her with a brush and a belt as punishment and forced her to run laps and endure other physical discipline for “acting out,” the outlet reported. Officers documented visible injuries, and Rebekah was taken to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where she was treated for a bloody lip and bruising on her hands and feet, according to the report.
Despite the child’s statements and her injuries, investigators closed the case after her father, Richard Baptiste, and Woods told police the injuries were self-inflicted, the outlet reported.
911 CALLS, POLICE REPORT DETAILS DARK TIMELINE TO ARIZONA GIRL’S TRAGIC DEATH
A father and girlfriend face murder charges after 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste died from extensive injuries while living off-grid in rural Arizona. (GoFundMe)
Rebekah was later found unresponsive on July 27, 2025, near a remote campsite outside Concho, Arizona, where investigators say the family had been living off-grid in a yurt without electricity or running water after relocating from Phoenix earlier that month. The family slept on thin mattresses on the floor and hauled water in plastic jugs from a convenience store roughly 15 miles away, according to investigators.
A 36-page probable-cause affidavit from the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office detailed what detectives described as escalating abuse and repeated attempts by Rebekah to flee. Records show the girl had previously jumped out of a window while living in Phoenix and made multiple escape attempts after the move to Concho, including the day she was taken to the hospital.
Despite Rebekah’s visible physical decline, including being too weak to drink from a straw, Woods, who claimed to have a background in nursing, told investigators she believed the girl “would be fine” and did not seek immediate medical care.
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An Arizona couple is facing murder charges after a young girl was found unresponsive on a highway and died days later. (Apache County Sheriff’s Office)
When first questioned, both Woods and Baptiste denied knowing what caused Rebekah’s condition, suggesting she may have fallen. Medical professionals later found extensive signs of abuse, including a brain hemorrhage, burn marks, missing toenails and hair, and numerous cuts and bruises, according to investigators.
Previously reviewed 911 calls from July 27 show Woods referring to Rebekah as her daughter and claiming she was providing rescue breaths, though dispatchers noted she had not begun chest compressions and hesitated to place the child on firm ground, citing nearby rocks. Emergency crews later arrived, but Rebekah did not survive her injuries and was pronounced dead days later at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Investigators wrote that when Baptiste was shown what one detective described as “horrendous photos” of his daughter’s injuries, he “lacked in expressing any emotion.” The detective added it would have been impossible for a parent not to notice the extent of the child’s injuries.
CHARGE AGAINST MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOM DISMISSED, ANKLE MONITOR REMOVED AS FBI HUNTS FOR MISSING 9-YEAR-OLD
Authorities say Baptiste later admitted to striking Rebekah with a belt as punishment for running away, though he denied causing her head injuries. Detectives also reported finding bloody clothing inside the family’s tent that had been changed before emergency services were contacted.
Both Baptiste and Woods are now facing first-degree murder and multiple child abuse charges, including allegations involving Rebekah’s two younger siblings. Prosecutors have also alleged Rebekah suffered ongoing physical and sexual abuse.
Concerns about the children’s safety had been raised repeatedly before Rebekah’s death. School officials at Empower College Prep reportedly contacted Arizona’s Department of Child Safety (DCS) at least 12 times over two years, including after Rebekah’s unexplained absence from school, according to prior reporting.
MISSING ‘AT-RISK’ GIRL MELODEE BUZZARD’S MOM APPEARS IN COURT AFTER ALLEGED BOX-CUTTER STANDOFF
A memorial plaque for Rebekah Baptiste marks a planted tree in her memory at an outdoor garden, dated Dec. 20, 2014, to July 30, 2025. (Empower College Prep Elementary)
Rebekah was remembered by the school, where she attended for two years, in a tribute posted on its Facebook page the day after Christmas. School officials described her as intelligent, compassionate and a natural leader, noting she earned the Star Wolfpack award for exemplifying the school’s core values.
In her honor, the school planted a tree with pink flowers, surrounded by a rock garden made from stones created by staff and students, and displayed a decorative crane donated by a staff member. The school said the tributes allow students and staff to remember her life each day.
DCS has since launched a review into whether the agency failed to adequately protect the child. Gov. Katie Hobbs has also pledged to fully investigate the case amid growing public scrutiny.
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State Sen. Carine Werner has cited Rebekah’s case as part of a broader failure within Arizona’s child protection system, calling the deaths of three children with prior DCS contact a “wake-up call.”
Werner said a September stakeholder meeting, part of a multiphase review process, included testimony from families, tribal representatives and child welfare experts as lawmakers weigh possible reforms.
Fox News Digital reached out to DCS and Phoenix police.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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