McDonald's says it will reach out to a man widely quoted in accounts of the three women who were found in Cleveland after they went missing about a decade ago.

Charles Ramsey, who lives in the neighborhood where the women were found, noted in an interview with a local TV station that he was eating McDonald's when the scene unfolded Monday. He also made note of his meal in a 911 call. Both the interview and the 911 call went viral online.

On Tuesday, the world's biggest hamburger company said on Twitter: "We salute the courage of Ohio kidnap victims & respect their privacy. Way to go Charles Ramsey -- we'll be in touch."

Representatives for McDonald's, based in Oak Brook, Ill., did not immediately return calls for comment.

The vast majority of the $1 million reward for ending the manhunt for Christopher Dorner will go to a couple who was tied up at gunpoint in their Big Bear cabin by the rogue ex-cop, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

The LAPD posted a document on its website in which a panel of three judges detailed the payouts for the much-sought reward.

They decided about $800,000 will go to James and Karen Reynolds. Fifteen percent will go to Daniel McGowan, who found Dorner's burning truck in the Big Bear area where he eventually was discovered, and 5 percent will go to tow-truck driver R.L. McDaniel, who spotted Dorner at a Corona gas station earlier in the manhunt and reported the sighting.

The $1 million reward was announced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa during Dorner's rampage in February.

Dorner had vowed warfare on Los Angeles Police Department officers and their families for what he called an unfair firing.  He killed four people, including two law enforcement officers, during his nearly one-week run from authorities that ended with his death on Feb. 12.

Multiple parties came forward claiming they provided the key tip that ultimately led Dorner to hole up in a vacant mountain cabin where he apparently took his own life after a shootout with law enforcement officers.

Among those who laid claim to the reward was a camp ranger whose truck was taken by Dorner. He filed a lawsuit seeking the $1 million last week.

During their ordeal, the Reynolds were held up at gunpoint and tied up before Dorner stole their purple Nissan SUV to escape.

After escaping her constraints, Karen called authorities, identified Dorner, gave the location of the cabin and the Nissan's description. Less than half an hour later he was spotted by Fish and Wildlife wardens and a chase ensued.

A Texas death row inmate convicted of killing a fellow drug dealer while robbing him outside of a Waco convenience store 10 years ago was executed Tuesday evening.

In the seconds before being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, Carroll Joe Parr told the wife of his victim that she should talk to her brother and that he would "tell you the truth about what happened to your husband."

Then he said he had a "statement to the world." He said he was "in the midst of the truth."

"I am good. I am straight," Parr said.

He added that he wanted his "partners" or friends to know that he would "be back" like the Arnold Schwarzenegger "Terminator" film character.

"I'm on my way back. These eyes will close, but they will be opened again," he said before telling his family he loved them and thanking his spiritual adviser.

As the lethal drug began flowing into his arms, he took a breath, yawned, then began snoring. He was pronounced dead 19 minutes later, at 6:32 p.m. CDT.

Parr's attorneys didn't file any last-minute court appeals but Parr himself filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his punishment, arguing his legal help at his trial was deficient. Earlier Tuesday, the same appeal was denied by a judge in his trial court in Waco.

State and federal courts had rejected all of Parr's earlier appeals, most recently last week.

Parr, 35, became the fifth inmate executed this year in Texas, which has 10 others scheduled for the coming months including one next week.

Parr, known on the streets as "Outlaw," had told The Associated Press during a recent interview that he was resigned to his fate — and even welcomed it — although he insisted someone else killed 18-year-old Joel Dominguez.

"Death to me is the prize," Parr said. "My eyes are clear."

Prosecutors said Parr bought 7 pounds of marijuana from Dominguez for $2,500 on Jan. 11, 2003, and he and a friend, Earl Whiteside, went to rob Dominguez of the money later that evening. They said Parr and Whiteside herded Dominguez and another man, Mario Chavez, to a fenced area next to the store, where Parr pistol-whipped Dominguez and demanded the money, which Dominguez gave him.

Parr ordered Whiteside to "smoke 'em," according to court documents. Whiteside shot Chavez in the hand. Parr shot Dominguez in the head.

Parr said he was nowhere near the convenience store at the time of the killing and contended a surveillance video that showed him there was doctored by prosecutors.

"They chopped the tape," he said.

Parr declined to say who did the shooting, saying he "gave the dudes my word" that he wouldn't snitch on them.

Whiteside, who is serving a 15-year sentence for aggravated robbery, testified that Parr was the one who shot and killed Dominguez. Several other witnesses, including Parr's girlfriend at the time, said Parr had told them he killed Dominguez.

"It probably was somebody who borrowed his body that's on that video," Russ Hunt Sr., one of Parr's trial lawyers, said facetiously.

Hunt said the prosecution's case against Parr was strong. The defense team focused on trying to save Parr's life by showing jurors he had an abusive childhood and grew up in a "hellacious environment," the lawyer said.

"We did our best for him," Hunt said. "He really did have a terrible life. ... The state had all the evidence. That makes our job a little harder."

Parr, from prison, described himself as a third-grade dropout who "grew up on the streets since I was 9." He said he had fathered five children.

Prior to the killing, Parr had several drug convictions, including one for three counts of delivering cocaine, for which he was placed on probation. He was also linked to, but not charged in, a fatal drive-by shooting, another shooting and an assault.

Parr recently told McLennan County authorities he had killed 16 people and offered to lead them to the remains of at least two of his victims if they would dismiss a robbery case against his nephew. But the Waco Tribune-Herald last week reported that investigators didn't find Parr's claims credible.

Next week, Jeffrey Williams, 37, is set to die for the 1999 slaying of a Houston police officer who had pulled him over for driving a stolen car.

Federal authorities announced a crackdown Tuesday on predatory businesses that cheat "desperate and vulnerable" people harmed by the 2008 financial crisis with phony promises to consolidate their debt.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference that charges were brought against the owner and three employees of a New York company that cheated over 1,200 customers nationwide after opening its doors in 2009. They were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, along with separate mail and wire fraud charges.

He said Mission Settlement Agency promised to help people harmed by the economic collapse for a $49 monthly fee but instead often made them worse as it made $2.2 million in fees from customers it did not help while taking in more than $6.6 million in fees in all.

"The true mission of Mission turned out to be fraud and deceit," he said. "And for more than a thousand consumers, the dream of debt relief turned into a nightmare of deeper debt trouble."

Bharara said the prosecution was the first to result from a case referred by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency was created under the 2010 financial law known as the Dodd-Frank Act. The agency is charged with reducing the risk of a credit bubble by helping to ensure that borrowers are better informed and loans are more likely to be repaid.

Richard Cordray, the bureau's director, said similar prosecutions would be brought in the future to protect the 30 million Americans who are chased by debt collectors.

Bharara promised the prosecution would not be the last against those taking advantage of people struggling financially.

"Our concern is that predatory practices pervade the industry," he said.

U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge Phil Bartlett said the men arrested in the case lived lavishly, buying homes, fancy cars and operating a Brooklyn nightclub with money received from victims he described as "both desperate and vulnerable."

Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer for the company's owner, Michael Levitis, said his client had cooperated with federal authorities since being approached in February.

He said Levitis, who was freed on $1 million bail, was victimized by "rogue employees who were acting like cowboys in a sense."

"He'd gotten wind there were rogue employees making ridiculous promises. Some even started their own debt settlement companies," Lichtman said.

In the tight-knit neighborhood near downtown where many conversations are spoken in Spanish, it seems most everyone knew Ariel Castro.

He played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands. He parked his school bus on the street. He gave neighborhood children rides on his motorcycle.

And when they gathered for a candlelight vigil to remember two girls who vanished years ago, Castro was there too, comforting the mother of one of the missing, a neighbor said.

Neighbors and friends were stunned by the arrest of Castro and his two brothers after a 911 call led police to his house, where authorities say three women missing for about a decade were held captive.

Castro and his brothers, ages 50 to 54, were in custody Tuesday but have not been formally charged.

Ariel Castro was friends with the father of Gina DeJesus, one of the missing women, and helped search for her after she disappeared, said Khalid Samad, a friend of the family. He also performed music at a fundraiser held in her honor, Samad said.

"When we went out to look for Gina, he helped pass out fliers," said Samad, a community activist who was at the hospital with DeJesus and her family on Monday night. "You know, he was friends with the family."

Tito DeJesus, one of Gina's uncles, said he played in a few bands with Castro over the last 20 years. He remembered visiting Castro's house after his niece disappeared, but he never noticed anything out of ordinary, saying it was very sparse in furniture and filled with musical instruments.

"That's pretty much what it looked like," DeJesus said. "I had no clue, no clue whatsoever that this happened."

Juan Perez, who lives two doors down from the house, has known Castro for decades.

"He was always happy, nice, respectful," Perez said. "He gained trust with the kids and with the parents. You can only do that if you're nice."

He said Castro had an ATV and a motorcycle and would take children on rides. Nothing seemed wrong with it then, he said, adding that he now thinks that was one way Castro tried to get close to the children. He also worked until recently as a school bus driver.

Castro's personnel file with the Cleveland public school district, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, shows he was hired in 1990 as a bus driver after saying on his application that he liked working with children.

The personnel file includes details on his dismissal, approved by the school board last fall after he left his bus unattended for four hours.

Police identified the other two suspects as the 52-year-old's brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50.

Lucy Roman lives next to a house that she said is shared by Pedro Castro and his mother. She said police arrested him Monday night.

"I feel sorry for her," Roman said of the mother. "She's a very nice lady."

Several residents said they saw Ariel Castro at a candlelight vigil for the missing girls.

Antony Quiros said he was at the vigil about a year ago and saw Castro comforting Gina DeJesus' mother.

One neighbor, Francisco Cruz, said he was with Castro the day investigators dug up a yard looking for the girls.

Castro told Cruz, "They're not going to find anyone there," Cruz recalled.

Castro's Facebook page identifies him as a Cleveland resident and graduate of the city's Lincoln-West High School. His interests include Virginia Beach, the Chinese crested dog breed and Cuban-born salsa singer Rey Ruiz.

On April 11, he wrote to congratulate "my Rosie Arlene" and wish her a fast recovery from giving birth to "a wonderful baby boy. That makes me Gramps for the fifth time. Luv you guys!"

___

Associated Press writers Mike Householder, Thomas J. Sheeran, Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Cleveland and Meghan Barr and Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

A Kansas City animal shelter is caring for a puppy that authorities say survived in a locked car that was impounded for nearly a month in a city lot.

The 12-week-old puppy, which has been named Kia, apparently survived by eating trash left in the car. The terrier and schnauzer mix didn't have access to water.

Toni Fugate, a spokeswoman for the city's animal shelter, says the puppy is dehydrated and malnourished but is expected to survive.

Records show that the car was towed to the lot April 8. A lot employee saw the dog Monday afternoon and called police, who broke into the car.

The Kansas Pet Project is working to find a foster home for Kia. She won't be available for adoption for some time.

A 49-year-old Texas man and his 24-year-old son face felony assault charges after being accused of drawing knives as the son tried to re-enter a Montana strip club after hours to get a dancer's phone number.

The Billings Gazette reports Jose Angel Lopez Sr. and Jose Angel Lopez Jr., both of Corpus Christi, Texas, were charged Monday in Yellowstone County Justice Court with two counts of felony assault with a weapon. Bail was set at $75,000 for the father and $50,000 for the son. They are scheduled to enter pleas in District Court on May 17.

Prosecutors allege Lopez Jr. pulled a knife and slashed at a bouncer who wouldn't let him back into Planet Lockwood early Monday, and that Lopez Sr. slashed at the bartender who punched his son several times.

The leader of a Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts charged with driving drunk in Rhode Island pleaded not guilty and was allowed to remain free on $1,000 bail at his arraignment Tuesday.

Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, 61, wearing a white clerical collar in court, did not speak during the two-minute hearing, letting his lawyer enter the not guilty plea on his behalf to charges of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

"I have instructed him not to comment," his attorney, former Rhode Island House Speaker William Murphy, said outside.

Murphy referred reporters instead to a statement McManus issued Monday is which he apologized for "a terrible error in judgment" by driving after drinking wine at dinner.

McManus was arrested in Narragansett on Saturday after allegedly striking another vehicle and driving from the scene, police said.

The other driver followed McManus and called police. McManus has a vacation home in the area.

"There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action," McManus said.

He also asked for forgiveness from his friends, family and the people he serves.

McManus declined to take a blood alcohol test and faces an additional civil charge of refusing to submit to a chemical test, which will he heard before a traffic tribunal at a later time, said Narragansett police Capt. Sean Corrigan.

McManus is a Providence, R.I., native and served as auxiliary bishop in Providence for five years, before he was installed as head of the Worcester Diocese in 2004. He's past chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Education.

McManus is due back in court May 28.

It's not every day a pair of lifelong New York Yankees fans are being honored by their crosstown rivals, the Mets, for writing a song about … Boston.

But that's what's happening Tuesday night at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y., where songwriters Jaime Hazan and David Fagin will receive the Mets' "Outstanding Teammates in the Community" award for penning the goose bump-inducing ballad "Boston Strong," dedicated to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Available on iTunes for $1.29, 100 percent of the song's proceeds are going to onefundboston.org.

And if the rave reviews from Boston are any indication, the crowd at the ballpark will love what they see and hear on the stadium's Jumbotron.

"I had tears streaming down my face and goose bumps and shivers when I first heard it," said Watertown Police Officer Kathleen Donohue, who helped capture bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after an all-day manhunt days after the attack. "For me , personally, it touches my heart and soul."

"Great song," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said after hearing the tune. "Knowing that you and so many others around the world are standing with us helps."

Hazan, 41, and Fagin, 45, hope the song can not only provide strength to the wounded city, but also raise money for the more than 200 people injured in the attack, including dozens who had limbs amputated. Available on iTunes for $1.29 – the tune offers anyone with a buck and the will to help a way to lend a hand.

"Boston Strong" is now being distributed by digital music label, INgrooves/Fontana, and can be heard in 8,000 Starbucks shops, nationwide, as well as in Canada, on Pandora, and in Nordstrom department stores.

For Hazan, a professional pianist and native New Yorker, the terrorist attack was a sobering reminder of 9/11 – and the need to remember those whose suffering outlasts the headlines. A former emergency medical technician when terrorists struck the World Trade Center, Hazan went back to work, volunteering amid the toxic smolder and rubble of Ground Zero.

"For me, when a terrorist attack happens, anywhere on our homeland, it brings back the frightening memories (from) New York City on 9/11," Hazan told FoxNews.com. "When you think back to that day, I remember how many people came out to help us. They just did it.

"These guys also need all the support they can get," added Hazan, whose health still suffers from his time helping out. "Twelve years later, I'm still trying to get the benefits I need, so I know the last thing these guys need to endure is a fight for help. Let's treat these guys right."

For lifelong Yankees fan Hazan and Fagin, the former front-man for the indie rock band, The Rosenbergs, the sports rivalry between Boston and New York is transcended by the bond thrust upon them by terror attacks some dozen years apart.

"For people who went through a terrible event like this one, I wanted to let them know we are with them," Fagin said. "When something like that happens -- Red Sox, Yankees -- we're all on the same team."

A South Carolina high school teacher removed from the classroom when he stomped on an American flag while discussing freedom is being paid $85,000 to avoid a legal challenge.

The State newspaper obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act that show Chapin High School teacher Scott Compton is being paid the settlement by Lexington-Richland District 5, in addition to his salary through June 7.

Compton resigned as part of the settlement after criticism about his actions last December. The documents also show that the school district will pay attorney fees of nearly $32,000 for Compton.

The payments were not disclosed when Compton's resignation was announced March 27.

A school spokesman said Compton's lawyers had indicated they would file a complaint in federal court about school officials who sought his dismissal.

A female teacher at a Catholic high school in Ohio who was fired after the name of her same-sex partner appeared in her mother's obituary is reportedly fighting to get her job back.

The Plain Dealer reports that Carla Hale, 57, a longtime physical education teacher at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, was informed by the school principal that she was terminated for being in a homosexual relationship — and not for being gay.

"Your written spousal relationship violates the moral laws of the Catholic Church," Bishop Watterson High School Principal Marian Hutson wrote to Hale in a March 28 letter.

The obituary, which appeared in the Columbus Dispatch, listed survivors, including "daughter, Carla (Julie) Hale."

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus was alerted to the obituary by an anonymous letter, the newspaper reports. The author claimed to be "a concerned parent" of one of Hale's students.

"I was shocked by what I saw," read a copy of the letter given to The Plain Dealer by Hale's attorney. "It had her teacher's name and that of her 'spouse' listed. It was two females!"

Hale was informed by the school that she violated a contract between the diocese and a union representing Catholic teachers, specifically a section that indicates teachers can be fired for "immorality." Hale was not available for an interview, the newspaper reports.

"The decision that I made — to acknowledge Julie, my partner, in my mother's obituary — is not immoral," Hale said in a statement issued last week through attorney Thomas Tootle.

Columbus diocese officials did not return phone calls seeking comment. Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell told the Dispatch last week that Hale's firing was necessary to maintain "the integrity of our faith."

"We don't necessarily go looking for things like that, but this was made public," Campbell told the newspaper.

Hale, however, wants her job back. Late last month she filed a grievance through the teachers union, asking to be reinstated.

Hutson, in a handwritten response, reportedly wrote: "You were not terminated for being gay, but for the spousal relationship publicized in the newspaper which is against church teaching."

Click for more from The Plain Dealer.

Agriculture students at a Northern California high school say they are being bullied online by fellow students who identify as vegans.

Fox 40 reports the vegan students allegedly have been posting angry words against Elk Grove High School's agriculture program on social media sites such as Instagram.

"[One student] keeps posting about goats and sheep and pigs and dead pictures and them being slaughtered," agriculture student Katie Velon told the station.

Outside vegan groups have also reportedly become involved in the bullying, and some vegan students are passing out fliers on campus. In one instance, meat eaters were called "carcass crunchers."

The agriculture students say they feel misunderstood.

"I don't think it's fair for people to be saying that, because they don't understand the work we put into all these animals. And it's something we voluntarily do," student Miranda McCurry tells Fox 40.

A vegan student who spoke with Fox 40 but declined to be identified says she has not passed out any fliers and no vegan student has called a fellow student a "carcass cruncher."

Click for more from Fox 40. 

As smoke thickened and a fire grew in the back of a limousine, Nelia Arellano desperately tried to squeeze through a 3 foot by 1 1/2-foot partition.

Stuck for a moment, Arellano made her way into the front seat. Four of her friends quickly followed. Five others didn't make it. Their bodies were later found pressed against the partition.

Arellano said in an interview Monday with KGO-TV that she believes the driver, Oliver Brown, could have done more to help during the fire, which took place Saturday night on one of the busiest bridges on San Francisco Bay.

"When he stop the car, he get out from the car, he just get out from the car," she said.

Arellano and other women had started the night celebrating the recent wedding of Neriza Fojas and were headed across the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge to a hotel in Foster City.

Brown -- a San Jose man who worked for the limo company the past two months -- has said in interviews that one of the passengers tapped on the partition behind him, saying something about smoke as music blared from the back. No smoking was allowed, he told them.

Then the taps turned to urgent knocks, and someone screamed "Pull over!"

Brown said he stopped on the bridge as soon as he could. Then he helped pull the women out through the partition, he said.

One of the women who made it through the partition ran to the back and yanked open a door, but Brown said that provided oxygen to the fire and the rear of the limo became engulfed in flames.

Brown said he believed it was an electrical fire.

"It could have been smoldering for days," he told KGO on Monday, noting there was no explosive boom.

Authorities searched for answers Monday, hoping to learn what sparked the blaze and why five of the victims killed Saturday night couldn't escape.

The position of the bodies at the partition suggested they were trying to get away from the fire, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said.

Fojas, 31, a registered nurse from Fresno was planning to travel to her native Philippines to hold another wedding ceremony with relatives. Her friends in the limousine were fellow nurses.

Fojas was among the five who died. Her mother, Sonya, broke into tears during an interview in the Philippines with local TV network GMA News.

"How painful, how painful what happened," she said.

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas Jr., on Tuesday expressed condolences to the Fojas family.

"Mystery surrounds deadly limo fire," he said in a Twitter message. "Condolences to the Fojas family in the Philippines and the U.S. and other nurses."

Fojas and another woman who died, Michelle Estrera, were nurses at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno. The remaining three victims haven't been identified.

The medical center's CEO, Jack Chubb, said in a statement Monday that Fojas and Estrera were outstanding nurses, loved by their patients, colleagues and staff.

"Both were good friends, stellar nurses and excellent mentors who served as preceptors to new nurses," he said.

A relative of Fojas said the young nurse was preparing to get her master's degree.

Christina Kitts said Monday that Fojas lived in Hawaii while she reviewed for her nursing exam, then took a job in Oakland for two years before moving to Fresno about a year ago.

Three survivors hospitalized were identified as Jasmine Desguia, 34, of San Jose; Mary Guardiano, 42, of Alameda; and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro. Arellano, 36, of Oakland, was treated and released.

California Highway Patrol Commander Mike Maskarich said the state Public Utilities Commission had authorized the vehicle to carry eight or fewer passengers, but it had nine on the night of the deadly fire. Maskarich said it was too early in the investigation to say whether overcrowding may have been a factor.

State PUC spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said Monday that the commission is looking into whether the operator of the limo, Limo Stop, willfully misrepresented the seating capacity to the agency. If so, Limo Stop could be penalized $7,500 for each day it was in violation.

Limo Stop is licensed and has shown evidence of liability insurance, Prosper said. The company has seven vehicles with a seating capacity of up to eight passengers listed with the commission, and it has not been the target of any previous enforcement action.

The CPUC requires that all carriers have a preventive maintenance program and maintain a daily vehicle inspection report, Prosper said. Carriers also certify that they are have or are enrolled in a safety education and training program, she said.

Prosper said requirements for emergency exits only apply to buses, and limousines are not required to have fire extinguishers.

Joan Claybrook, the top federal auto-safety regulator under President Jimmy Carter, said the stretch limousine industry is poorly regulated because the main agency that oversees car safety doesn't have enough money to prioritize investigating the small businesses that modify limos after they leave the assembly line.

"I think the oversight is pretty lousy, because the modifications are so individualistic, and there are not that many companies out there that do this. Mostly, they are mom-and-pop operations," said Claybrook, a former administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration who previously led consumer group Public Citizen.

Instead, the agency tends to focus more on problems with new cars and major recalls, she said.

U.S. Department of Transportation data shows five people died in three separate stretch limo accidents in 2010, and 21 people died in another three stretch limo accidents in 2011.

Stretch limos are typically built in two ways.

In the first process, one carmaker builds the limousine's body, then another company customizes or stretches the vehicle.

The second company has to issue a certification that the car meets National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety standards for new vehicles, and that all safety equipment is working as required before it can be sold to the public, said Henry Jasny, an attorney with the Washington-based nonprofit Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

In the second process, a customer buys the limousine directly from the carmaker, then takes it to be customized. But modifying the car after it has been sold is considered a retrofit, so is not something NHTSA would regulate, Jasny said.

Many older models such as the 1999 Lincoln Town Car that caught fire Saturday were modified after they left the factory, said Jerry Jacobs, who owns a boutique limousine company in in San Rafael with a fleet that includes two stretch limos.

"There is nothing wrong with having these older models on the road. Many have low mileage and immaculate interiors because we take care of them. But when these cars start getting older and the rubber boots wear out, they start running hot," Jacobs said. "The key is you have to keep doing all the right maintenance to make sure they're running smoothly."

A Massachusetts funeral director is having trouble finding a burial location for the body of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed in a gun battle with police, despite more than a hundred offers from across the U.S. and Canada. 

Worcester funeral home director Peter Stefan told the Associated Press Monday he has received 120 burial offers for the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in various cities, but when he talked to officials in the cities and towns where the graves are located, nobody wanted the body there.

An employee at the funeral home also told Fox News Monday that Tsarnaev's mother has expressed interest in sending his body to Russia.

Joseph Gliniecki, of Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, said Monday that the funeral home is "exploring that as an option" and would have to file necessary paperwork with the Russian Embassy in the U.S.

He said the decision on the body will be up to the family, but added that the mother would like to send it back to Russia for burial "if at all possible."

"Everyone wants him sent back to Russia," Stefan said, according to NBC News.

Stefan said when he made follow-up calls on all the grave offers, he got the same result each time.

"It's not only Massachusetts that doesn't want him," Stefan said. "Nobody wants him. And all these people who have donated graves, I've made some calls and said to somebody in the cities and towns where the graves were, `Hey, we would like to bury the guy there that was part of the marathon bombing."'

He said the response was often the same: "You're not gonna do that here."

He said he received an offer from a Texas truck driver who didn't want anybody to know that the body would be in the plot he'd be donating, but the outcome was the same.

Additionally, the founder of the organization that built Colorado's largest mosque, which operates independently, tells Fox News that if there is no one willing to "perform the actual physical burial," he would be willing to do so.

Al-Shaikh Abu Omar Almubarac says that he has performed traditional Muslim burials for men, women, children and infants for about twenty years, and calls any Muslim who would refuse to do so for a fellow Muslim "so-called Muslims."

"As a Muslim I have a responsibility to bury the deceased as commanded by the Almighty," he said. 

Stefan told the Associated Press he was not aware of Almubarac's offer, but said he might pursue it.

Stefan said he plans to ask for a burial in the city of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, but Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy urged the Tsarnaev family not to make a request.

"The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the City of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests, and wide spread media presence at such an interment," Healy said in a statement on Sunday.

The Tsarnaev brothers are accused of carrying out the Boston bombings using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards. The attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon's finish line.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured and remains in a prison hospital. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and faces a potential death sentence if convicted.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, of Montgomery Village, Md., and three of his friends met with Stefan on Sunday to wash and shroud Tsarnaev's body according to Muslim tradition.

Tsarni told reporters that he is arranging for Tsarnaev's burial because religion and tradition call for his nephew to be buried. He would like him buried in Massachusetts because he's lived in the state for the last decade, he said.

"I'm dealing with logistics. A dead person must be buried," he said.

He said he was grateful to Stefan for agreeing to arrange the burial and to his friends for accompanying him to Massachusetts to aid with the funeral.

"These are my friends who feel for me ... as I do understand no one wants to associate their names with such evil events," he said.

Fox News' Corbett Riner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

A transcript of the 911 call placed Monday by a woman missing since 2003, when she was 16.

(unintelligible)

Caller: Help me. I'm Amanda Berry.

Dispatcher: You need police, fire, ambulance?

Caller: I need police.

Dispatcher: OK, and what's going on there?

Caller: I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here, I'm free now.

Dispatcher: OK, and what's your address?

Caller: 2207 Seymour Avenue.

Dispatcher: 2207 Seymour. Looks like you're calling me from 2210.

Caller: Huh?

Dispatcher: Looks like you're calling me from 2210.

Caller: I can't hear you.

Dispatcher: Looks like you're calling me from 2210 Seymour.

Caller: I'm across the street; I'm using the phone.

Dispatcher: OK, stay there with those neighbors. Talk to police when they get there.

Caller: (Crying)

Dispatcher: OK, talk to police when they get there.

Caller: OK. Hello?

Dispatcher: OK, talk to the police when they get there.

Caller: OK (unintelligible).

Dispatcher: We're going to send them as soon as we get a car open.

Caller: No, I need them now before he gets back.

Dispatcher: All right; we're sending them, OK?

Caller: OK, I mean, like ...

Dispatcher: Who's the guy you're trying -- who's the guy who went out?

Caller: Um, his name is Ariel Castro.

Dispatcher: OK. How old is he?

Caller: He's like 52.

Dispatcher: And, uh -

Caller: I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years.

Dispatcher: I got, I got that, dear. (Unintelligible) And, you say, what was his name again?

Caller: Uh, Ariel Castro.

Dispatcher: And is he white, black or Hispanic?

Caller: Uh, Hispanic.

Dispatcher: What's he wearing?

Caller (agitated): I don't know, 'cause he's not here right now. That's why I ran away.

Dispatcher: When he left, what was he wearing?

Caller: Who knows (unintelligible).

Dispatcher: The police are on their way; talk to them when they get there.

Caller: Huh? I - OK.

Dispatcher: I told you they're on their way; talk to them when they get there, OK.

Caller: All right, OK. Bye.

Authorities say three brothers have been arrested after three women who vanished about a decade ago in separate cases were found alive Monday in a residential area just south of downtown Cleveland, just a few miles from where they disappeared.

Police said a 52-year-old man was among those arrested, but released no names and gave no details about the others arrested or what charges they might face. They described one of the suspects as a Hispanic male but said they planned to provide more information at a news conference Tuesday.

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found earlier in the day. A 6-year-old also was found in the home, according to authorities. 

Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health and had been taken to a hospital for evaluation, where they would be reunited with their relatives. 

Cleveland's police chief says he thinks three women were tied up in the house where they were found and had been there since they disappeared.

One neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told Fox 8 he heard screaming,found Berry at the door of the house and helped her call police.

"Help me, I'm Amanda Berry. ... I've been kidnapped and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now," Berry can be heard saying on the frantic 911 call,made at 5:51 p.m. Monday.

She asks for police to respond "now, before he gets back" and then identifies her kidnapper as "Ariel Castro."

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. 

DeJesus disappeared at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for the other two women.

Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing Berry and DeJesus again. Among them was Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer. "This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

At Metro Health Medical Center, Dr. Gerald Maloney declined to go into details about the women's conditions.   "We're assessing their needs, and the appropriate specialists are evaluating them as well," he said at a news conference, which concluded with a round of applause from a large gathering of area residents.

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who had last been seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

Click for more from Fox 8.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The owner of a San Fernando Valley jewelry store has reached a plea agreement for his role in an insider-trading case involving a former senior partner at accounting firm KPMG.

Prosecutors allege that accountant Scott London provided jeweler Bryan Shaw, a long-time friend and golf partner, with insider information about KPMG clients including Herbalife Ltd., Skechers USA Inc., Uggs maker Deckers Outdoor Corp.

The government alleges that Shaw made over $1 million in illicit profits by trading in advance of company announcements on earnings results or mergers. In exchange, Shaw is alleged to have given London bags filled with cash, along with a Rolex watch and jewelry for his wife, among other items.

The Department of Justice said Shaw was charged Monday with one count of conspiracy for his role in the scheme. As part of the deal, Shaw agreed to plead guilty to the felony offense and admitted that he plotted with London to commit securities fraud. He will also forfeit nearly $1.3 million in illegal stock-trading profits.

Shaw, a 52-year old resident of Lake Sherwood, Calif., is expected to make his initial appearance later this week in U.S. District Court.

London was fired from KPMG and charged last month for his role in the scheme that took place from 2010 to 2012. The 50-year old Agoura Hills, Calif., resident is scheduled to be arraigned on May 17.

An Air Force officer who led the branch's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response unit has been charged with groping a woman in a parking lot.

Arlington County Police said Monday that they charged Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski of Arlington with misdemeanor sexual battery after an alleged assault about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the Crystal City section of the county.

A police report says that the 41-year-old Krusinski was drunk and grabbed a woman's breast and buttocks. Police say the woman fought him off and called police.

Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck says Krusinski did not know the woman involved.

An arraignment is scheduled for Thursday.

Air Force spokeswoman Natasha Waggoner said Krusinski was removed from his position after the Air Force learned of his arrest.

A Pennsylvania man faces larceny, money laundering and other charges stemming from the alleged theft of six art works including a Pablo Picasso etching from a suburban New York City estate.

Brooklyn and Long Island prosecutors announced the indictment Monday of Joselito Vega, of Easton, Pa.

They say Vega was working as a painter in March 2011 at an estate in Kings Point, N.Y., where three paintings were later reported missing.

Investigators tracked one of the stolen paintings to an art gallery in Oakland, Calif., where it sold for $8,500.

Detectives set up a sting at the estate and Vega was arrested last month after allegedly stealing three more works, including the Picasso.

He is being held on $1 million bond. A listing for his attorney could not be found.

Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andrés Alonso will retire at the end of the school year, after six years of leading the district and orchestrating a turnaround for a system ailing from decades of decline.

Alonso's six years at the district's helm make him one of the longest-serving big-city superintendents in the country.

Under Alonso's leadership, student enrollment and graduation rates increased as suspension and dropout rates dropped.

He said Monday that he is retiring to return home to New Jersey to care for his parents and to assume a professorship at Harvard University.

His last day will be June 30. Chief of Staff Tisha Edwards will serve as an interim CEO through the next school year while the School Board searches for a permanent successor.