Highlands County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Riley says he was hit in the chest by a thrown cellphone Saturday night after being dispatched to a Decatur Street home to check on an argument. ...more

November 5, 2009

An anonymous pledge of $5,000 in the case of a missing Putnam County girl has boosted the reward for finding her to $25,500. ...more

February 25, 2009

"Compulsion" by Jonathan Kellerman begins with a description of a grisly murder. Somehow, detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware find a minor connection between murders whose only link is that the killer uses luxury vehicles to travel in. There seems to be no motive in the murders but Milo and Alex feel they were committed by the same person, even though it seems hard to believe that the brutal murderer is somehow connected with both the wealthy center of Los Angeles and New York City. The known murders cover a period of at least 10 years and Alex is sure that the same person is responsible. In the absence of any connecting motives, Alex concludes that the perpetrator is obviously a very clever madman who is killing because he can. When Alex and Milo track down the devious character, they also provide some closure for the grieving parents who had been wondering what happened to their teenage son, missing for the past 10 years. The answer is an unhappy one but knowing what happened makes the couple grateful that they will be able to find their son's body and have a memorial service. And Milo is happy to be able to take at least one "cold case" from his files. ...more

February 18, 2009

Alakhir Daniels saw some of himself when looking at a black and white video surveillance photo of a bank robbery suspect that ran in the Jan. 6 edition of Highlands Today. ...more

February 15, 2009

The paramour of a woman accused of brutally beating a teenager and keeping him locked in a bathroom for two years was arrested Thursday on similar charges. ...more

February 13, 2009

The Avon Park Police Department is investigating two separate business robberies that occurred within the past week. ...more

February 7, 2009

The Avon Park Police Department is investigating two separate business robberies that occurred within the past week. ...more

February 6, 2009

Paul Hinman, crime prevention practitioner with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office, received an alert from Pinellas County about threats toward seniors in shopping center parking lots. ...more

December 17, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG -- When he leapt through a window of a St. Petersburg home this morning, Christopher A. Alexander was mistaken for a burglar. Only he was the victim of a crime, not the perpetrator, police say. ...more

December 12, 2008

James Barnes' stated motive for killing his wife, Virginia Barnes, was because he did not want her to live with her "current state of dementia." ...more

October 24, 2008