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1978 cold case murder of California teacher solved after killer’s relative confesses

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1978 cold case murder of California teacher solved after killer’s relative confesses


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The 1978 cold case murder of a California high school teacher who was stabbed to death has been solved nearly five decades later, officials confirmed.

Diane Peterson was found dead on a hallway floor near her classroom at a San Jose high school on June 16, 1978, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. She was 26. The killing happened on the day after summer break began when teachers returned to campus to finish cleaning their classrooms, the district attorney said.

The San Jose Police Department can now confirm that Harry “Nicky” Nickerson stabbed Peterson when he was 16, after a family relative witness came forward earlier this year. The district attorney’s office said Nickerson confessed to the murder to the family member and was seen carrying a knife with the phrase “Teacher Dear” written on it.

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“When we hit a brick wall and we reached a dead end with forensic evidence, it came down to old school police work and our detectives interviewing people and trying to get answers from people. And we finally got the answer we were looking for,” Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker said at a news conference Monday, June 2.

The district attorney’s office said a family member of the victim thanked investigators for continuing to search for answers, adding that “Diane was a beautiful and wonderful person who is missed dearly.”

What happened to Harry Nickerson?

Nickerson died in from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1993, according to the district attorney’s office. While Nickerson was never convicted in Peterson’s death, he was among the prime suspects.

A 1978 booking photo of the teen appeared very similar to a composite sketch eyewitness accounts shared, the district attorney’s office said.

“He denied being involved. He said he didn’t own a knife and the case was basically cold,” Baker said, adding that Nickerson accused officers of trying to “pin” the crime on him.

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In 1983, a family of a student at the school claimed they saw Nickerson kill Peterson, but the student later denied making the statement, per the district attorney. The next year, a witness told police that they saw Nickerson carry out a drug deal that implicated the teen in the murder.

Following Peterson’s death, Nickerson was arrested and convicted of various charges including armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, the district attorney’s office said. In 1984, he was shot and critically injured during a drug robbery, but no charges were filed in that case.

Why did the witness just come forward?

The family relative, whose identity the district attorney did not share, did not come forward for decades out of fear of retaliation from Nickerson or his family, Baker confirmed with USA TODAY.

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“After exhausting all other investigative leads, including extensive forensic DNA analysis, homicide detectives reached out to the relative, who revealed the secret they had been keeping for nearly 50 years,” Baker told USA TODAY. “According to the detectives, it was an emotional moment for the relative.”

The witness was not involved in Peterson’s killing in any capacity and did not help Nickerson evade arrest so criminal charges could not be filed, Baker said.

“This marks the end of a terrible and tragic mystery,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a news release. “Ms. Peterson would have been a senior citizen today if she had not crossed paths with this violent teenager. I wish she was. I am pleased that we have solved this case, even though the murderer is not alive to face justice. I wish he was.”



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Man charged with murder, kidnapping their 5-year-old child before fleeing to Mexico

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Man charged with murder, kidnapping their 5-year-old child before fleeing to Mexico


A 40-year-old Los Angeles man was charged with murder after allegedly killing his girlfriend and kidnapping their young child before fleeing to Mexico, according to authorities.

Ruben Fregosojuarez has been charged one count of murder and one misdemeanor count of child abuse under circumstance or conditions other than great bodily injury or death, according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office news release. Authorities first identified him as Ruben Fregoso but Los Angeles County prosecutors listed him as Ruben Fregosojuarez.

On Monday around 12:39 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a welfare check in the 2600 block of South Alsace Avenue in West Adams, police said in a news release.

Officers found a woman dead inside the home “as a result of violence” and the woman’s daughter missing, police said. On Monday night, the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for the child, Daleza.

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Photos obtained by NBC4 appear to show Fregosojuarez in a parking garage in San Ysidro with the girl on Sunday. The California Highway Patrol has listed her age as 4 years old but Los Angeles police say the girl is 5. She is also described as the suspect’s daughter.

The alert said that the girl was last seen with Fregosojuarez, who allegedly abducted her in a 2019 Land Rover Discovery, on Sunday at about 4 a.m.

The CHP posted in an update that the vehicle was found but that the child and man were still missing. The girl is described as 3 feet tall, 45 pounds, and having black hair and brown eyes.



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23andMe Sued by California Over Massive 2023 Data Breach

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23andMe Sued by California Over Massive 2023 Data Breach


California’s attorney general is suing the consumer genetics testing company formerly known as 23andMe, alleging the company failed to protect customers’ sensitive personal information in a massive 2023 data breach that exposed the ancestry and genetic data of nearly 7 million people.

Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit on Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court against Chrome Holding Co., formerly known as 23andMe, accusing the company of failing to properly investigate or respond to numerous warnings that its systems had been compromised. The company’s mail-in self-testing kits became synonymous with DNA testing before it filed for bankruptcy in 2025.

In 2023, cybercriminals breached 23andMe’s systems by using a “credential-stuffing attack,” which involves bombarding online accounts with huge sets of user names and passwords stolen in previous unrelated attacks. Over a period of months, the intruders were able to make off with the personal data of more than 6.9 million people.

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“23andMe’s security measures were so lax that the threat actor was able to operate undetected within 23andMe’s systems for over five months, and remarkably, 23andMe only began investigating after the threat actor offered the stolen user data for sale on the dark web and reached out to 23andMe to demand a ransom,” Bonta’s office said in the complaint. 

The San Francisco-based company, which allowed people to submit genetic materials and get a snapshot of their ancestry, revealed in October 2023 that hackers had accessed customer information in the prolonged data breach that targeted customers with Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The stolen data of more than 1 million Asian-Pacific Islander and Ashkenazi Jewish users was later posted for sale on the dark web. 

“The sale of this data on the dark web took place amidst a period of mounting anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander and antisemitic hate and violence,” Bonta said in a press release. “This is disturbing and incredibly dangerous.”

 A January 2024 lawsuit accused the company of not doing enough to protect its customers and not notifying certain customers that their data had been targeted specifically. It later settled the lawsuit for $30 million.

23andMe representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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At its peak, 23andMe became the best-known name in the emerging area of DNA self-testing, with users paying upwards of $99 for kits that gave them insights into their genetic makeup, potential relatives and ancestry. But the company’s momentum slowed down in recent years after its $3.5 billion public offering in 2021.

Last July, TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s cofounder and former CEO, acquired 23andMe’s assets for $305 million.    





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Newsom signs law to shield California elections from federal interference

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Newsom signs law to shield California elections from federal interference


Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, signed legislation Wednesday that aims to shield California elections from federal interference, saying he expected Donald Trump’s administration to try to meddle in the midterms this year.

The law, which took effect immediately and came days before next Tuesday’s primary, prohibits any person – including federal agents – from accessing voter rolls or election technology without a court order. Law enforcement officers are restricted from disrupting election workers, except in public safety emergencies.

Trump administration officials so far have said they have no plans to send immigration agents to polling locations across the US, a concern raised this year by several Democratic secretaries of state. But Newsom warned “we have to be prepared for everything” because “there’s no rules any more with the Trump administration”.

Voting is already under way in California’s closely watched primary for governor, where a crowded field of Democrats and two viable Republicans are vying for just two spots on the November ballot. Under the state’s open primary system, only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

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Newsom, who cannot seek a third term, said the election law is a response to “legitimate anxiety” about Trump’s tactics, primarily in Democratic-led states, where the president has deployed federal agents over the objections of local leaders. The Democratic governor warned against underestimating someone who “doesn’t believe in free and fair elections”.

“I expect the worst with Trump because he’s done the worst,” he said at a news conference.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Associated Press later Wednesday that Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections.

“Instead of levying false attacks at the President, Newscum should look in the mirror,” she said in a statement, using Trump’s derogatory nickname for Newsom.

In an interview last year with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, knocked down the idea that Trump would deploy the military to suppress voting, saying it was “categorically false”.

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The California law also makes it a crime to knowingly take voted ballots out of the custody of election officials.

Earlier this year, the FBI under Trump seized the 2020 general election ballots from Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and has long been at the center of the president’s false claims that fraud cost him the race. The FBI and justice department also have sought records from previous elections in the largest counties in Arizona and Michigan.

Trump triggered a national redistricting frenzy ahead of the midterms when he urged Republicans in Texas and elsewhere to redraw their US House districts to help the party retain control of the closely divided chamber. Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee also have enacted new maps that could benefit Republicans, and Louisiana is expected to be next.

Republicans so far think they could gain as many as 14 seats from redistricting in November, while Democrats think they could gain six in California and Utah.



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