Person trapped under bus, killed in crash

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Authorities are investigating a fatal multi-vehicle accident involving a METRO bus in northwest Houston.

It happened just before 1:30pm Sunday in the 200 block of Interstate 45 North at Cottage.

According to a METRO spokesperson, a vehicle was stalled in a lane due to a flat tire. A second vehicle rear-ended it, causing a chain-reaction crash involving a total of four vehicles, officials said.

A pedestrian was struck in the crash and was reportedly trapped under a METRO bus. That man died at the scene, officials said.

Five others were injured in the string of accidents. Authorities said four were transported with non-life-threatenig inuries and the fifth was treated at the scene and released.

Investigators shut down the roadway for a couple hours while they investigated and cleared the wreckage. METRO police are investigating the incident.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local

View the original article here

Historic Alief Cemetery now under maintenance of Harris County

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Houston area has some historic cemeteries that are badly in need of cleanup. Often it's done by neighborhood groups, but in Alief the job was just getting to be too much for volunteers.

So the county has stepped in to pay some tribute to the past and create a park-like space for the community.

Surrounded by traffic that passes by day and night is a reminder of what Alief once was -- a farming community founded on the fields southwest of Houston. And Alief Cemetery was its burial ground for pioneer families, with lives that bridged the 1800's and 1900's.

The hard life reflected in some of the markers and the ages at which they died.

Volunteers did what they could over the years. One man mowed it a bit at a time, day by day. A Boy Scout troop and students helped out, but more consistent attention was needed.

Over time, the cemetery was forgotten, but later rediscovered by Marie Lee.

"Where people threw their trash, where builders threw their old concrete, and it was just a big mess," said Lee, with the Alief Community Association.

She and other volunteers cleaned it up when they could, but the job required more than that. So their county commissioner took the Alief Cemetery on as a precinct project.

State law allows counties to maintain historic cemeteries without perpetual care. Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack decided Alief Cemetery qualified.

"You go from something that people are appalled by to something they take pride in," said Commissioner Radack.

On Tuesday, county crews mowed the grass, county inmates collected trash, and a survey was taken for a fence that will surround the cemetery.

For Ernest Kobs, a Precinct 3 employee, it's both a job and a labor of love.

"People have a fear of being forgotten and I want to make sure people are not forgotten," Kobs said.

There are ghost stories about the cemetery -- strange lights and tales of an apparition near the graves. That doesn't frighten Marie Lee. But if there are ghosts here, she hopes they'll appreciate what the living have done for the dead.

"They've got a good haunting place now. At least they can find where they want to go," Lee said.

It's the third cemetery project Precinct 3 has adopted. Radack sees it as creating a community asset which can serve as a park-like setting for neighbors.

The inmate labor is free. The only cost to the precinct is fuel to transport people and equipment.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

alief, local, deborah wrigley

View the original article here

Woman found dead in bathtub under mysterious circumstances

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Police are trying to figure out what happened to a woman found dead in a bathtub under mysterious circumstances in southwest Houston.

"It's a human tragedy, no question about it," said neighbor William Howard.

Yellow crime scene tape wrapped a house on Cherry Limb Drive -- an unusual sight for neighbors.

"It's a cul-de-sac on both ends, so we don't get that much traffic," Howard explained.

It was after 1am when police got a call about a disturbance at the house. When officers arrived they found all windows and doors locked. But a closer look revealed something bizarre.

Officer Roy Swainson with HPD Homicide said, "While peeking through all the windows, they found what appeared to be two bodies in the bathtub."

Police found a couple -- a man and a woman, both in their 30s -- partially clothed, in a bathtub, with water in it. Police say Lashonda Moye, 37, was transported to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital where she was pronounced dead. The man in the tub with her has been identified as Nathan Mitchell.

"It appears he might be the victim of some sort of minor trauma. I'm still waiting on the results of what his injuries are," Officer Swainson said. "He has provided a story that we are going to go ahead and continue researching as to what he had to say about all this."

Neighbors are shocked. Beth Paguio first heard the commotion after midnight.

She recalled, "I was gonna like, what's going on, look out, but I didn't, but I wish I did."

Moye's two sons, ages 18 and 7, were staying with relatives at the time, and are unharmed.

Authorities hope an autopsy on Moye's body will reveal her cause of death.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more Local »

local
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/ktrk/xml?id=5758258&ptnr=promoCarousel");

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

View the original article here

Bees invade building under construction near Galleria

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Crane operators face a dangerous job, being high above the ground. But some are facing a new threat - killer bees! They swarmed a crane working on a building in the Galleria area.

Along with the banging of hammers and the whirling of drills, there was a constant buzz at the Galleria-area construction site from a menace that was living way up high.

"I've noticed there's been a lot of bees around the top up there," said Alex Cochran, superintendent of the site.

"A lot" turned out to be 5,000 honey bees that decided this new building made a perfect home. They settled in 20 stories up, making their hive in a crane whose operator was getting sick of being stung.

"He got one on his wrist and one on his shoulder," Cochran said.

It was time to call in an expert when the hive doubled in size.

"The bee hive was about a size of a softball yesterday and today it's about the size of a basketball," Cochran said.

That many bees would frighten most people.

"Every time you do a bee job, you're gonna get stung," Gotcha Pest Control owner Claude Griffin said.

But for Griffin, this is the most fun he can have on the job.

"I just gotta do a vacuum situation and suck her out," he said.

He and his coworker suited up, climbing the crane to get to the bees, and within about a half an hour, they vacuumed the insects into a cage and made the trip back down, buzzing with pride.

"These people needed to get rid of these bees, these bees were really gonna cause some problems," Griffin said.

Now the workers here can focus on their job without being bugged.

Those pest removal experts tell us this area is very popular for bees for a good reason. They remove a lot of hives here because people maintain the flowers so well that it is bee paradise.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, katie mccall

View the original article here

Mansion under construction burns in The Woodlands

  THE WOODLANDS, TX (KTRK) -- Fire crews had to pull two alarms overnight when a mansion caught fire in The Woodlands.

It happened on Lamerie Way. Firefighters had to use more than a million gallons of water to put the fire out.

The fire was burning through a 12,000 square foot mansion that was under construction. No one lives there right now and the home doesn't have power, so investigators are treating this fire as suspicious.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more Local »

the woodlands, local
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/ktrk/xml?id=5758258&ptnr=promoCarousel");

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

View the original article here

Woman's body found under bridge in Pasadena

PASADENA, TX (KTRK) -- Police are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found Sunday under a bridge on the banks of Vince Bayou in Pasadena.

According to officials, the female body was discovered by a passer-by sometime before 11am at South Shaver and Queens. That civilian then apparently flagged down and alerted a nearby police officer.

Authorities have not released the woman's name, but they say it looks like she may have been murdered.

A spokesperson for the Pasadena Police Department said the woman was nude and was severely beaten, specifically around the face, and she may have ben sexually assaulted. They describe her also as a Latina in her mid-30s.

"It's someone's child, daughter, sister," nearby resident Jaime Almaguer said. "We live in a cruel world right now."

From Almaguer's front door you can see the spot where the body was found, but no one at his home saw or heard anything suspicious.

"Everybody was celebrating New Year's with their gunshots, stuff like that, but nothing that was out of the ususal," he said.

Police say they found identification on the body and have tenatively identified the victim as a Pasadena resident. They have also talked to a man who they say is her husband.

Investigators aren't saying if she was killed at the site or just dumped there.

The scene is immediately adjacent to Pasadena Fire Department Station No. 4. It's a volunteer fire station and no one was there overnight, but police hope one of the surveillance cameras outside the fire station might give them images to help catch the killer.

If you have information that may help investigators, call Pasadena police or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Please stay with Eyewitness News and abc13.com as we continue to follow this developing story.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, kevin quinn

View the original article here

House under construction goes up in flames

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Fire crews were called out to a home on the south side of Houston overnight to put out a fire there.

The flames broke out around 1:30am at a home on Lydia on Springhill. When firefighters got there, they found flames shooting from the roof of the one story home. They quickly put out the fire.

The home is currently under renovation and no one lives there. Arson investigators are now working to find out how the fire started.

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local

View the original article here

Former teacher under investigation for child porn

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A former Klein ISD teacher has been charged with viewing child pornography while on the job at school. The teacher worked at Hildebrandt Intermediate, before he left the job nearly seven months ago. Now he's wanted by police.

Law enforcement is looking for a former teacher at Hildebrandt Intermediate School, who is accused of having child pornography on his work computer. An arrest warrant was issued for Orville Blaine Sanders on Monday. He's accused of possession of child porn. Sanders supervised students during in-school suspension.

The investigation started back in October and law enforcement says illegal images were found on his work computer.

We received a statement from Klein ISD that says in part, "Mr. Sanders admitted visiting inappropriate sites during his employment with Klein and then promptly resigned."

Klein ISD also says none of the images found on Sanders' computer were of students. He allegedly downloaded them from websites.

Klein ISD did not make anyone from Klein ISD Police Department available to talk about the investigation.

Sanders worked for the school district for eight years and has no criminal history. According to court documents, he heard about the child porn websites from students and he continued to visit the websites for "shock value."

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local, adela uchida

View the original article here

High rise balcony fire under investigation

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Officials said the only thing destroyed by an overnight fire at a high rise was some patio furniture on a balcony. The question now is how the fire started -- 13 stories up.

The fire was first reported around 9:50pm Friday at Museum Tower on Montrose near Milford in the Museum District.

According to the Houston Fire Department, some furniture on the balcony of an apartment on the 13th floor of the building caught fire.

The blaze prompted the evacuation of the 13th floor until firefighters arrived and extinguished the flames.

The fire did not spread inside the unit because the balcony is made of concrete. The people who live there were at home, but they did not know how it started.

Arson is investigating.

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

local

View the original article here

Firefighters have blaze in Magnolia under control

  MAGNOLIA, TX (KTRK) -- Firefighters on late Tuesday were still putting out spot fires after a blaze erupted hours earlier and threatened an entire Montgomery County neighborhood.

At the height of the blaze, 28 pieces of equipment, including dozers and a helicopter, were used to battle the flames that erupted just after 1pm along FM 1774. Texas Forest Service, the U.S. Forest Service, Tomball Fire Department, Rosehill and Cy-Fair fire departments all helped battle the blaze because it was in a heavily wooded area and high winds were spreading it quickly. At one point, the fire threatened the Magnolia Ridge Subdivision near FM 1488 and one family was evacuated. Many homes in that neighborhood are new or still being built. The Forest Service quickly dispatched a helicopter capable of making water drops and four bulldozers to the scene. In addition Cy-fair Fire Department brought their bulldozer. Authorities believe the fire may have started either by a cigarette butt or from sparks off the wheels of a passing train. It was difficult to determine as the fire was on both sides of the track and did run up against FM 1774. At 9pm, fire crews were still mopping up and putting out spot fires. There were just a few trucks remaining compared to the height f the fire when 28 pieces of fire equipment were on the scene. (Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) 

View the original article here