Year In Review: CrimeFeed’s 20 Most-Read Stories Of 2020

In October, police arrested actor Zachery Ty Bryan, who played eldest son Brad Taylor on the hit ‘90s sitcom Home Improvement, for allegedly choking his girlfriend in Oregon. “An investigation found that during the dispute Bryan is reported to have assaulted the victim, impeded her breathing, and taken the victim’s phone from her when she tried to call 911,” a Eugene Police Department rep told ET at the time, adding that “the two have been in a relationship.” Bryan announced on social media the end of his 14-year marriage to wife Carly Matros just weeks before the incident.

Read more: CrimeFeed, ET, Daily Mail

Photo: Zachery Ty Bryan at an event in Santa Monica, California, November 2016. [Paul Archuleta/Getty]

Four Florida teenagers faced felony attempted murder charges after a dispute with another teen police said was “romantic in nature” quickly escalated when the intended victim’s mother arrived home and got involved. According to authorities, the mother followed the suspects as they fled into a van and she began taking photos of them with her cell phone. The teens, according to authorities, “intentionally ran into her, then over her, before fleeing the scene.”

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Elijah Stansell [Polk County Sheriff's Office]

The ongoing saga of Idaho mother Lori Vallow took another sad turn in June when investigators discovered two sets of human remains on the property of her new husband, Chad Daybell. Authorities later confirmed the remains belonged to Vallow’s two missing children, Tylee, 17, and JJ, 7, who had not been seen alive since September. Vallow and Daybell have since been connected with a string of suspicious deaths, including those of her brother, Alex Cox, and estranged ex-husband, Charles Vallow, as well as Daybell’s wife of 30 years, Tammy Daybell.

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Photos: JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan [Associated Press]

Megan Boswell became the center of an investigation last winter after her 15-month-old daughter Evelyn went missing and the Tennessee teen mother claimed to be too afraid to tell authorities who had her child. A babysitter last saw the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl around December 10, 2019, but the disappearance wasn’t reported until the baby’s concerned grandfather contacted authorities in mid-February, over two months later. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation claimed officials looking into the “complicated” case received “a number of conflicting statements.” They eventually located the baby’s remains on property belonging to Boswell’s relatives.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Evelyn Boswell [screenshot from WCYB-TV]

In August, the discovery of the body of Megan Boswell’s 15-month-old daughter Evelyn prompted a Tennessee grand jury to indict the mom for the little girl’s death. Boswell pleaded not guilty to 19 counts against her, including two counts of felony murder, one count each of aggravated child neglect, aggravated child abuse, tampering with evidence, abuse of corpse, failure to report a death under suspicious unusual, or unnatural circumstances, and 12 counts of false reporting.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Megan Boswell mugshot [Sulivan County Sheriff's Office]

An 8-year-old named Jaylin Schwarz died in Texas of dehydration in late August after her guardians, Daniel and Ashley Schwarz, allegedly punished the little girl by making her jump on a trampoline “without stopping for an extended period of time” and refused to let her “drink water because she was not jumping,” according to a statement released by the Odessa Police Department. Authorities later determined the temperature on the trampoline was a scorching 110 degrees. Daniel and Ashley Schwarz were each charged with capital murder.

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Photos: Daniel Schwarz and Ashley Schwarz [Odessa Police Department]

Yaser Said, a 63-year-old taxicab driver, was captured in August — 12 years after he went on the run following the murders of both his daughters, Amina and Sarah, in Texas on New Year’s Day in 2008. Said allegedly had told the girls he was taking them to get something to eat. Instead, he’s accused of shooting them both in cold blood in a suspected “honor killing.” “Even after 12 years of frustration and dead ends, the pursuit for their killer never ceased,” Irving Police Chief Jeff Spivey noted. Said had been on the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted list since 2014.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Yaser Abdel Said [FBI]

Joshuah Taylor Bradshaw, a 30-year-old North Carolina man, was arrested and charged in September with more than 300 sex crimes involving over 130 underage male and female victims, some as young as 5. According to USA Today, Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said the alleged abuse began in February 2020. “My message to parents: Pay close attention to what your children are doing at all times,” he said, adding, “Watch how much access they give their children to people whether in person or online.”

Read more: CrimeFeed, USA Today

Photo: Joshuah Taylor Bradshaw [Hoke County Sheriff's Office]

A quick-thinking woman whose former boyfriend allegedly was holding her hostage in her Utah home was able to escape after a locksmith who had arrived for a pre-arranged appointment interpreted her secret plea for help. While the woman’s ex was “hovering over” her, the locksmith later recalled, “she’s sitting there talking to me about what types of payment I take and everything, and she’s kind of turning, she’s at a little bit of a different angle and she’s holding up her hand.” Find out the message she wrote that may have saved her life.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Mugshot of Grant Eggersten [KSTU/Wasatch County Sheriff's Office]

In July, Texas investigators positively identified the partial remains of Vanessa Guillen, the Army specialist who had gone missing from Fort Hood months before. When police confronted suspect U.S. Army Specialist Aaron David Robinson on July 1 about Guillen’s disappearance, he pulled out a pistol and fatally shot himself. Robinson’s girlfriend, Cecily Ann Aguilar, was arrested the same day and she allegedly confessed to helping Robinson dismember, burn and bury Guillen’s body, according to court documents.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Cecily Aguilar [Bell County Jail]

Orlando police used genetic testing to determine three newborns abandoned over a three-year period — one in 2016, another in 2017, and the last in 2019 — were all related with each other, public documents revealed last spring. A note discovered with one of the children abandoned on an apartment complex tenant’s doorstep “explained the baby was left at the location because the mother was in fear of the child's father," Orlando police Det. Ghena Luker wrote in a memo. Florida’s Safe Haven Law allows a parent to anonymously surrender their unharmed newborn of less than one week old at a fire station, emergency medical services station or hospital.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Abandoned newborn [screenshot from WOGX]

At the beginning of 2020, Arizona mother Rachel Henry made the shocking confession that she smothered to death her three young children — Zane Ezri Henry, 3, Mireya Henry, 1, and Catalaya Kyeana Rios, 6 months — in the family’s Phoenix home. According to a probable cause statement, after killing the two oldest children, Henry put the youngest to sleep by feeding her a bottle. Henry then “sang her a song as she placed her hand over [the baby’s] face and impeded her breath… until she became unconscious and died," the statement reads.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Rachel Henry [Maricopa County Sheriff's Office]

Lindsay Ann Richardson sparked controversy and a discussion about privilege after she was sentenced to only 180 days in jail for killing Julian Solis while she was driving drunk. According to Solis’ family, the father had gone for a walk to clear his head on the evening of July 21, 2019. Around 9:30 p.m., Richardson, who had a blood-alcohol level of .184, reportedly was driving in her SUV when she swerved onto the shoulder of the road, struck and killed Solis. The judge on the case initially sentenced Richardson to serve two years in prison — half the maximum potential term of four years. He later suspended the sentence and imposed a final sentence of 180 days behind bars and five years of probation. In defending his decision, the judge described Richardson as a “highly educated young woman and professional” and noted she seemed “exceedingly remorseful,” “has no prior criminal record” and now “seeks to give meaning to her victim’s death and the void his family has sustained.” Solis’ sister, Mayra Renteria, countered: “My brother was a good person too, but he didn’t deserve to die.”

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photos: Lindsay Richardson [Photo by Gregg Samelson] and Julian Solis [Photo provided by family]

When Arkansas nurse Sydney Sutherland went jogging near her home in mid-August and vanished, friends, family and authorities organized a massive search. Days later, her body was discovered buried on farmland and police arrested Quake Lewellyn. According to reports, Lewellyn allegedly admitted to spotting Sutherland while he was driving, turning around his vehicle and kidnapping her. Lewellyn, a third-generation farmer from the area, sexually assaulted and murdered Sutherland and joined a Facebook page dedicated to finding the victim while she was still missing.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Sydney Sutherland [Jackson County Sheriff's Department Facebook page]

Rachel Henry, the Arizona mom who smothered three children to death last winter, allegedly explained during a jailhouse video call with her family why she committed the horrific crimes. According to the video between Henry and the kids’ great aunt, Pearl Rebolledo, which Phoenix’s KPNX obtained from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the mother allegedly claimed she was confused at the time. “I told you I felt like I was losing my mind, because I didn’t understand why you guys, why everyone was acting the way they were. I didn’t. I was on drugs,” Henry told Rebolledo. “I was freaking out and I didn’t know what to do. I know I was scared.” Henry also said she “didn’t know what was going on” and had “tried to talk to someone.” She added, in part: “They said I was stupid or scared and I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Read more: CrimeFeed

Watch video: KPNX

Photos: Clockwise from left, Rachel Henry (KPNX), Henry's three children with their father Pedro Rios (KPNX), and Henry's mugshot after her arrest in January (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office).

In September, an Alaskan dentist was sentenced to 12 years in prison on dozens of charges, including unnecessarily sedating Medicaid patients and overbilling the public health insurance program — but video presented during his trial created an even bigger stir. Veronica Wilhelm said in court she was “shocked” and “pretty livid” when investigators shared with her cell phone video shot in July 2016 that showed the dentist, Seth Lookhart, balancing on a hoverboard as he pulled the sedated woman’s tooth. Lookhart later allegedly texted the video to multiple friends and family, bragging the incident was a “new standard of care.” Wilhelm told Lookhart in court she forgave him, but she blasted his actions as “outrageous, narcissistic and crazy.”

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Seth Lookhart on a hoverboard after having extracted a patient's tooth [The Today Show]

Staten Island doctor Tamara Saukin vanished while out for a walk with her mother on the morning of November 18. At some point during the outing, Saukin’s mother returned to a vehicle and Saukin continued on. Tragically, the doctor’s remains were found in a large pond in early December.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photos: Tamara Saukin and some of the officers conducting the search [NYPD]

What started as a fun day filming videos turned grim for a group of teens in Seattle last August when they stumbled upon a suitcase on the beach. According to police, the kids opened the bag and discovered human remains. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office later identified the murder victims as Washington mother of four Jessica Lewis and her longtime boyfriend Austin Wenner. Police have accused a man the couple was renting a room to during the COVID crisis of committing the murders.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photos: Jessica Lewis and Austin “Cash” Wenner [GoFundMe]

A 23-year-old gamer made a 3,400-mile round trip from his home in California to Texas in less than three days in order to commit murder. According to police, Alexander Baro showed up at the home of the 18-year-old victim Matthew Thane and lured him outside. “Early in the investigation, police were led to an acquaintance of the victim, who he met through online gaming,” the Flower Mound Police Department said in a news release. Law enforcement in both jurisdictions worked together to obtain a search warrant for Baro’s home, but the suspect “took his own life as police were attempting to have him exit his residence.” Investigators believe Baro may have gotten into a dispute with the victim over an online game.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photo: Alexander Baro [Flower Mound Police Department

A 9-year-old Idaho boy died in September because his stepmother subjected him to “horrific” torture and his father “admitted he did nothing to save his son” from the abuse, according to a prosecutor. Monique Osuna allegedly used everything from a frying pan to a dog leash to beat Emrik Osuna and forced the little boy to do grueling exercises, including jumping jacks and wall sits, for extended periods of time, the prosecutor claimed. The day the child died, his father, Erik, allegedly texted his wife and told her his son needed hospitalization, but it wasn’t until over four hours later that he finally phoned 911.

Read more: CrimeFeed

Photos: Monique Osuna and Erik Osuna [Ada County Sheriff's Office]