Arizona

Louisiana rape, murder suspect awaits transfer after arrest in Arizona

Published

1 year ago

July 1, 2024

Louisiana rape, murder suspect awaits transfer after arrest in Arizona

Police officials confirmed that a suspect arrested on Saturday in Winslow, Arizona, was wanted on charges of rape and murder of a Louisiana teen girl.

Arizona authorities assisted in the arrest of Montrell Donell Holmes, who was suspected of killing 14-year-old Ashley Barnes.

In a Facebook post made by the Bastrop Police Department, police officials said they were conducting a homicide investigation after they discovered a body in the woods, later identified as Barnes.

Officials said a suspect was arrested in connection to the case, identified as Holmes.

On Saturday, officials from the U.S. Marshals Service said their Flagstaff office received a request from the Marshals Service’s Western District of Louisiana Violent Offender Task Force to help locate and arrest Holmes.

Officials said he was wanted on charges of the murder and rape of Barnes.

The Marshals Service’s Flagstaff task force officers, in coordination with the Flagstaff Police Department and Department of Public Safety, located and arrested Holmes using cellphone tower pings. He was arrested in Winslow, just by Highway Interstate 40 and North Park Drive.

Officials said Holmes was awaiting transport back to the Western District of Louisiana, where he will face his charges. The Bastrop Police Department was still investigating the murder.

Annie Goodykoontz is a reporter for The Arizona Republic. You can reach her at AGoodykoontz@gannett.com.

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Arizona

Arizona State’s Season At Crossroads Following Letdown Loss

Published

14 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Press Room

Arizona State’s Season At Crossroads Following Letdown Loss

TEMPE — The 2025 Arizona State Sun Devils have officially joined the ranks of confounding sports teams based in the Phoenix area following a 24-16 loss to the Houston Cougars.

The third season of the Kenny Dillingham era began with such promise – as the team was ranked 11th in the AP preseason poll and many expected the team to be improved on both sides of the ball – at least as the season progressed.

Now the season is officially at an inflection point following a performance that screamed regression in response to one of the program’s biggest wins in years over Texas Tech.

While many will put the brunt of responsibility for the loss on uneven officiating or the absence of Jordyn Tyson, Dillingham ultimately doesn’t subscribe to it – stating that the team simply did not play well enough as a whole to secure a victory.

“Yeah. I mean, you’re losing the number one pick in his position in the college football so that’s obviously, you know, pretty critical for your football team when you’re losing. You know him, is that an excuse? Heck no, we didn’t play good enough to win. You know, maybe, if he played, maybe we have survived not playing good enough to win. But that doesn’t mean we played good enough to win.

You know, you got to look at the facts, and the facts are, we lost turnover battle. We had too many penalties. We lost field position. We couldn’t stop the plus one run game. And does have nothing to do with Jordyn and but, yes, not having Jordyn Tyson 100% is going to have an effect on the football game, right? But that’s not an excuse to why we lost the football game.”

The Sun Devil program now has to re-calibrate ahead of a road game against their 2024 Big 12 title game opponent in Iowa State – several areas of the squad have to be cleaned up in the week ahead, from special teams in lieu of another subpar showing, to the run defense – who ceded 111 yards on the ground to Houston QB Conner Weigman after getting torched by Utah QB Devon Dampier just two weeks prior.

The Sun Devils no longer have the ability to control their own destiny in the Big 12 – they now need Cincinnati and BYU to drop at least two games, as well as Utah to lose another game, Houston to drop one of their remaining four games, and potentially even more to have a shot at defending their Big 12 title. This is truly a crossroads in their season – but should this season be considered a failure if the team falls short? It remains to be seen, but stay tuned with Arizona State on SI in the meantime over the final four games of the regular season.

Read more on why the Arizona State men’s basketball team will exceed expectations in the 2025-26 season here, and on three major takeaways from the win over Texas Tech here.

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Arizona

Two hikers struck by lightning while taking photos from peak of Arizona mountain

Published

2 days ago

October 24, 2025

Press Room

Two hikers struck by lightning while taking photos from peak of Arizona mountain

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Two hikers were rescued from the peak of a mountain in northern Arizona after being struck by lightning on Tuesday.

The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the rescue, saying the hikers were saved from the summit of Humphreys Peak.

On Tuesday, the sheriff’s deputies received a call from two male hikers who told officers they had been struck by lightning.

Surprisingly, the two stranded hikers didn’t know each other and were from Flagstaff and Canada.

They were taking photos while at the summit of the mountain when they were hit by lightning, the sheriff’s office confirmed.

Search-and-rescue teams were immediately deployed to the trailhead.

Officials state they requested aircraft support but were denied due to severe weather, including lightning, hail, and heavy rain.

According to the sheriff’s office, rescue teams used two UTV vehicles to reach the victims before completing the rest of the rescue on foot.

“He reported that the other injured hiker had been unable to continue and had stopped near the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz Peaks, roughly 0.7 miles farther up the trail at 11,800 feet,” read a press release from the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.

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First responders had to use a litter carry-out to extract the second victim since he was unable to walk due to the steep terrain and his physical condition.

Both hikers were successfully taken to the Incident Command Post in the area, where an ambulance then drove them both to Flagstaff Medical Center for treatment and observation.

According to the National Weather Service, lightning kills about 20 people in the U.S. each year, and hundreds more are severely injured.

Lightning strikes occur about 25 million times a year in the U.S.

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Arizona

Woman killed in crash near Lake Pleasant near Peoria

Published

3 days ago

October 23, 2025

Press Room

Woman killed in crash near Lake Pleasant near Peoria

PHOENIX — State Route 74 was closed in both directions near Lake Pleasant in Peoria on Thursday afternoon due to a crash that killed a woman.

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) said the highway closed at about 1:15 p.m.

The closure was put into place at Lake Pleasant Parkway for the westbound lanes and 87th Avenue for the eastbound lanes.

ADOT did not say when SR74 is expected to reopen.

UPDATE: SR 74 is closed in both directions (WB: Lake Pleasant Pkwy, EB: 87th Avenue) with no estimated reopening time. For current road conditions, check the following:
🖥 https://t.co/3l4R4g60mW
📱 Apple: https://t.co/YMcnUEeWQs
📱 Android: https://t.co/9oINS4ymQP
— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) October 23, 2025