• A US judge has instructed Amazon to hand over audio recordings from an Amazon Echo as evidence in a murder case.
• Prosecutors believe the Echo may have evidence relating to the murders of Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pelligrini in New Hampshire in January 2017.
• Amazon's AI assistant Alexa is constantly listening out for "wake-up words" and records snippets of audio when it hears them.
• Amazon said it won't release any customer information "without a valid and binding legal demand."
• This is not the first time audio from an Echo has been requested in a murder case.

A judge in New Hampshire, US, has ordered Amazon to hand over any audio recorded on an Amazon Echo device as prosecutors believe it may contain evidence about a double homicide.

Christine Sullivan and Jenna Pelligrini were found dead with multiple stab wounds in January 2017. Timothy Verrill, 36, was charged in connection with the murders in November 2017. He pleaded not guilty, and awaits trial in May 2019.

Prosecutors requested access to recordings from an Echo which was at the house where the women were found, hidden under the porch. Police initially seized the Echo as evidence after searching the house.

"Investigators believe Sullivan was attacked in the kitchen of 979 Meaderboro Road where the Echo was located, and prosecutors believe there is probable cause to believe there is evidence on the Echo, such as audio recordings of the attack and events that followed it," prosecutors said in court documents, as reported by CBS Boston.

Prosecutors believe there may be recordings from between January 27 and 29, 2017, the period in which they believe the women were murdered.

Amazon's AI assistant Alexa (which works on Echo devices) listens out for "wake-up words" and records snippets of audio when it thinks it hears one. Prosecutors also point out that the Echo would contain records of paired devices.

Strafford County Superior Court Presiding Justice Steven M. Houran handed down the ruling to Amazon on Friday last week, ABC reports.

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It said: "The court directs Amazon.com to produce forthwith to the court any recordings made by an Echo smart speaker with Alexa voice command capability, FCC ID number ZWJ-0823, from the period of January 27, 2017 to January 29, 2017, as well as any information identifying cellular devices that were paired to that smart speaker during that time period."

An Amazon spokeswoman told Business Insider: "Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course."

This isn't the first case in which prosecutors have sought evidence recorded by an Amazon Echo. After the death of an Arkansas police officer in a hot tub in 2015, prosecutors sought to compel Amazon to hand over any recordings that might show whether he was murdered.

Amazon initially refused to hand over the data, saying that government demands could "chill" first amendment rights. But once the defendant and owner of the Echo consented, Amazon complied. The murder charge was eventually dismissed.

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• Authorities say that Patrick Braxton-Andrew, a school teacher from North Carolina, died "at the hands of a criminal organization," his family announced on Thursday.
• Braxton-Andrew was last seen on October 28 when he left his hotel in Urique, Mexico, to go for a walk.
• Authorities are searching for "those responsible to bring them to justice" and to recover Braxton-Andrew's body.

Last month, Patrick Braxton-Andrew, a school teacher from North Carolina, went missing while in Mexico. On Thursday, authorities told his family that he died in October, according to a Facebook post.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that Patrick died on October 28th at the hands of a criminal organization that operates in the area where he was traveling," the update said. 

"Patrick died doing what he loved — traveling and meeting people. Join us in celebrating his life as he would want us to do," the post said. "We will always remember Patrick and his joy for life."

The post said that authorities are searching for "those responsible to bring them to justice" and to recover Braxton-Andrew's body.

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Braxton-Andrew was last seen in Urique, Mexico, on October 28. He'd gone there to hike the Copper Canyon, and was heading to Mexico City to meet up with his brother to attend Day of the Dead celebrations.

Braxton-Andrew left for a walk in the afternoon and, according to hotel staff, never came back.

According to a statement from the state government of Chihuahua released Monday, searchers combed the village or Urique in search of the 34-year-old teacher, rappelling into 900-foot ravines and checking cabins, per the Associated Press.

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• Police in India say an American tourist was killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe, according to reports.
• The Sentinelese, who live on North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Islands, are among India's protected tribes and have almost no contact with the outside world.
• The US national was said to be attacked by arrows and had taken a fishing boat to the island to interact with the tribe.

Police say an American tourist was killed by members of the Sentinelese tribe on the North Sentinel Island of India's Andaman Islands, according to reports.

The Sentinelese are a remote, indigenous tribe protected by India. They are said to be resistant to contact with outsiders and have almost no contact with the outside world.

Read more: More than 100 'uncontacted' tribes exist in isolation from global society

The US national has been identified as John Allen Chau, according to Reuters, which cited local police officials, one of whom said a murder case had been registered.

Chau strongly desired to interact with the Sentinelese people and had hired a fishing boat before taking a canoe to the island, the report said.

An Agence France-Presse report cited by Times Now News, an English-language Indian outlet, quoted sources as saying Chau, 27, was "attacked by arrows but he continued walking." The fishermen, they said, "were scared and fled but returned next morning to find his body on the seashore."

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Because the island is protected, even the Indian navy isn't allowed to interact with its inhabitants, AFP reported.

A spokeswoman for the US Consulate in Chennai told Reuters it was aware of the reports about the incident.

SEE ALSO: This isolated tribe has rejected contact for centuries and remained hostile toward outsiders

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• Text messages obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by the Daily Mail show Shanann Watts was trying to save her marriage in the weeks before her husband murdered her and her two daughters.
• At the time of her death, Shanann was 15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy she planned to name Niko. She told friends that her husband had said he regretted getting her pregnant.
• As their relationship crumbled, Chris started dating a woman from work who sent him semi-nude photos and romantic messages, and even searched Google for wedding dresses.

In June, pregnant Shanann Watts took her two young daughters to visit family in North Carolina for five weeks, leaving her husband Chris behind in Colorado to work.

Within days she noticed him become distant, and by the time she returned home at the beginning of August, she had confided in friends that she thought he was cheating and was desperately trying to salvage their marriage.

She talked to her friends about it, bought a relationship book, and searched for a good couples counselor.

Days later, 34-year-old Shanann's body was found buried in a shallow grave at an oil site where her husband worked. The bodies of their two daughters were dumped in oil tanks just a few yards away.

Chris, 33, would eventually plead guilty to the murders. He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.

Cell phone data first obtained by the Daily Mail in a Freedom of Information Act request is shedding new light on the disturbing murders, which took place as a new relationship was blossoming between Chris and a woman he met at work.

The affair begins

A search of Chris' phone would turn up semi-nude photos of his mistress, Nichol Kessinger, 30, romantic messages, and voicemails.

In an interview with the Denver Post earlier this month, Kessinger said the two met at work in June and started dating at the end of that month. That seems to line up with his phone records, which show him entering Kessinger's contact information into his phone on June 14.

Shanann left for her extended trip to North Carolina on June 27. Signs of tension in the Watts' marriage first appear on July 10, when she texted to ask if he was "ok" because it didn't seem like he wanted "to talk" during their call earlier that evening.

"I wish my husband wanted to talk to me," she added.

Chris brushed off her concerns, saying he was "fine" and had just been stressed at work.

Investigators note that the first call found between Chris and his mistress on his phone was logged three days earlier. Four days after Shanann's concerned texts, Chris and Kessinger went on a date to the Mustang museum in Boulder.

Read more:Mistress of Chris Watts, the man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and 2 daughters, speaks out about their affair

While Kessinger downplayed the seriousness of their relationship in her Denver Post interview, saying she told him she wanted to take things slow, the phone reports paint a different picture.

On July 18, she started sending him semi-nude photos. By the end of the month, the two had gone away on an overnight trip to the Great Sand Dunes and Kessinger had Googled the phrase "Man I'm having affair with says he will leave his wife."

On August 4, she searched for wedding dresses on the internet for over two hours.

Chris kept the pictures of Kessinger secret from his wife by hiding them in a secret calculator app on his phone. During one of his many calls with his wife while she was away, he transferred some of those pictures into the app.

Becoming distant

Chris grew more and more unresponsive to his wife's calls and texts, and she picked up on it. Shanan started trying to talk to him about how they could fix their relationship.

"I realized [during] this trip what's missing in our relationship! It's only one way emotions and feelings," she texted Chris on July 24. "I can't come back like this. I need you to meet me halfway. You don't consider others at all, nor think about feelings."

"I try to give you space, but while you are working and living the bachelor life I'm carrying our 3rd and fighting with two kids daily and trying to work and make money," she continued. "It's not hard texting love you and miss you. If you don't mean it then I get it, but we need to talk. I kept looking at my phone all night and no response from you. Like seriously! We didn't just start dating yesterday! We've been together 8 years and have 2.5 kids together."

The next morning, Chris' phone shows he Googled "When to say I love you for the first time in a new relationship."

Reunited

On July 31, Chris flew out to North Carolina for the final week of his family's vacation.

Things did not appear to improve once Chris and Shanann were reunited.

She wrote him a lengthy text message on August 4, saying: "From the day I left you never said I missed you before I said it. Something changed when I left. You may be happier alone and that's fine. You can be alone! This pregnancy, you have failed to acknowledge it, or to acknowledge how I'm feeling."

Chris responded that he was "sorry for the way I've been acting."

"It's just been in my head and I haven't been right at all," he added.

"I don't know how you fell out of love with me in 5.5 weeks," Shanann responded in another message the following day.

Asking for advice

The situation got so bad that Shanann started confiding in her friends.

On August 7, the day the family returned to Colorado, Shanann texted one friend that "Chris told me last night he's scared to death about this third baby and he's happy with just Bella and Celeste and doesn't want another baby."

When the friend tried to reassure her that everything will be fine once the baby was born, Shanann responded, "He has changed, I don't know who he is."

"I told him last night, I don't feel safe with him after what he said about the baby and if he loves me he would hold me and tell me it will be ok," she continued. "Give me something and he did nothing, but go to bed."

The day after they returned to Colorado, Shanann texted another friend that she tried to have sex with her husband the night before "to see if that would help" the situation, but "he rejected me."

That night, Shanann and Chris were supposed to go to an ultrasound. The family was also supposed to host a gender reveal party, but Shanann canceled it because of their relationship issues.

Suspicions

When a friend asked if Shanann thought her husband was having an affair, she said she asked him and he told her no.

But she wasn't certain he was telling the truth because "what else would make him do a complete 360 ... We couldn't get enough of each other before I left."

On August 9, Shanann left town for a brief business trip to Arizona. One of the nights she was away, Chris hired a babysitter to watch the girls so he could attend a Colorado Rockies game with coworkers.

In reality, he went to meet up with his mistress.

Despite her husband's increasing coldness, Shanann appeared hopeful that she could save their relationship.

She told one of her friends on August 9 that they had a great conversation the night before, and he agreed to read a relationship book she bought off Amazon.

She also started searching for couples counselors in her area, and the two planned a getaway to Aspen for the weekend after she returned from Arizona.

Meanwhile, Chris transferred more semi-nude selfies of his mistress into his secret calculator app.

Trying to work things out

The night before she returned to Colorado, Shanann sent one of her friends a draft of a speech that she planned to make in front of her husband when she got back, to express how she was feeling about their troubles.

The message read: "Can you please tell me something, because just like you, I'm in my head? I try to fix things and make them better and this is making me crazy. I know that you need time. I want to give you what you're asking for and respect your space, I need some time. This place that I'm in, in my head, is not a good place. It is not healthy for me, or Niko. I need you to help me help you. I need you to give just a little bit of what I did, or didn't so, do I'm not going crazy in my head to figure it out. I know I can't fix this by myself; that, we are going to have to work together."

She also admitted to the friend that she wasn't blameless in their relationship.

"I sometimes can be b----y and he gets that side of me," Shanann said. "I know I tend to make him feel like he isn't able to do things because I have control issues."

Final moments

A home security system shows Shanann returning home early on August 13.

It's believed that she was strangled to death that very morning, and their daughters smothered, according to thir autopsy reports, also obtained in the FOIA request.

The investigators note that at 5:48 a.m., Chris left home "with the bodies of his family piled in the backseat of his truck."

Shanann was reported missing that day, when one of her friends failed to get in touch with her.

Chris told the cops that he believed his wife ran off with his daughters, but their bodies were found dumped at an oil site where he worked just a few days later.

Chris then changed his story and said he only killed his wife when he caught her strangling one of their daughters.

But earlier this month, he confessed to first-degree murder for the deaths of not only Shanann but their two daughters and their unborn son. He is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

• Read more:
• There's 'no evidence' Chris Watts' wife killed their kids as he claimed, according to a new report
• Colorado man accused of murdering his wife and two daughters thinks that 'no one understands him'
• Colorado dad may have strangled his 3- and 4-year-old daughters before allegedly dumping their bodies in an oil tank to hide the smell, documents suggest
• Police investigating a horrific family murder case in Colorado found the bodies in a remote oil field with help from a drone

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• Cellphone data recovered by detectives in their investigation into Chris Watts show the Colorado man was falling in love with his mistress in the days before he killed his pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their two kids.
• Shanann Watts picked up on the distance and was desperately trying to salavage their relationship, but Chris Watts remained detached, making internet searches for the prices of Audis while she bought self-help books online.
• Chris Watts killed Shanann Watts and their two daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste, sometime in the early morning hours of August 13. Their bodies were dumped at an oil site where Watts worked.

Cellphone data obtained in the investigation into Colorado murderer Chris Watts show he was looking up ways to marry his mistress and the lyrics to love songs in the days before he killed his pregnant wife and their two kids in August.

The data was included in a batch of nearly 2,000 documents obtained by the Daily Mail in a Freedom of Information Act request this week.

The cellphone data showed Watts striking up a romantic relationship with a woman he met at work, Nichol Kessinger. He entered her phone number into his phone on June 14, and they started dating while his wife, Shanann Watts, and daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, were away for most of the summer visiting family in North Carolina.

Chris Watts' phone data showed that he had his first phone call with Kessinger on July 7, and a week later they visited a Mustang museum together. Four days later, Kessinger started sending him seminude photos of herself, according to the data obtained by the Mail.

In July, Kessinger Googled the phrase, "Man I'm having affair with says he will leave his wife." A few hours after that search, Watts made a search for "Victoria [sic] Secret."

That same day, a worried Shanann Watts sent a slew of texts to her husband saying she had realized "what's missing in our relationship!" and accusing him of not reciprocating her feelings and effort. The following morning, Chris Watts made several Google searches between 8:41 a.m. and 12:07 p.m., including, "When to say I love you,""When to say I love you for the first time in a new relationship,""What do you feel when someone tells you they love you," and, "How does it feel when someone says I love you."

During an interview with The Denver Post earlier this month, Kessinger said that she started dating Watts at the end of June and that he told her he was in the final stages of his divorce. She said she didn't know that he was expecting his third child with his wife.

On July 28, investigators wrote in documents that Watts and Kessinger traveled together to spend a night at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Two days later, Watts started looking up "love letters" and lyrics to love songs.

The next day, Watts flew to North Carolina for the final week of his family's vacation.

On August 4, while Watts was away, Kessinger spent two hours looking for wedding dresses on Google.

On August 8, a day after the family returned from North Carolina, Watts searched Google for topics related to "marrying your mistress." Meanwhile, Shanann Watts had started confiding in her friends that her husband had become distant and they were having issues.

In the five final days of her life, Shanann Watts Googled couples counselors in her area and bought relationship self-help books online, according to the documents.

Read more:Text messages and phone records show pregnant Colorado woman murdered by her husband told friends before her death that he had 'changed' and didn't want another baby

Meanwhile, on August 9, four days before he killed his wife and kids, Chris Watts looked up the price of an Audi Q7. That day, his wife left for a quick business trip to Arizona. The following day, he spent the morning arranging a babysitter to look after his girls so he could attend a Colorado Rockies game the next day. In reality, he went out on a date with Kessinger.

The Watts' home surveillance system recorded Shanann Watts returning home from Arizona just before 2 a.m. on August 13. The report noted that, at 5:58 a.m., Chris Watts left his home with his family's bodies "piled in the backseat of his truck."

Earlier this month, Watts pleaded guilty to counts including first-degree murder. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences.

• Read more about the Chris Watts case:
• Mistress of Chris Watts, the man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and 2 daughters, speaks out about their affair
• 'I put my hands around my wife's neck': Video shows the chilling moment Chris Watts confessed to strangling his pregnant wife
• Friends of slain Colorado pregnant woman say she was worried her husband was cheating and was thinking about leaving him

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• Joseph Lopez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Natalie Bollinger. 
• Bollinger's body was found with a gunshot wound to the head in a wooded area north of Denver, Colorado, in December 2017. 
• Lopez said he shot Bollinger after finding a Craigslist ad he claimed she posted asking for someone to kill her. 
• Prosecutors said Lopez should have called police or gotten Bollinger help. 

A Colorado man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after telling police he shot a 19-year-old woman in the head after she hired him on Craigslist to kill her.

Joseph Lopez, 23, entered a plea deal with prosecutors after initially being charged with first-degree murder in the death of Natalie Bollinger, of Broomfield, Colorado, in December of last year, according to WLKY.

Bollinger's body was found in a wooded area north of Denver on December 29, 2017, a day after she was reported missing.

According to court records seen by KDVR, Lopez told police he had responded to a Craigslist ad titled "I want to put a hit on myself," that he said was created by Bollinger.

Lopez said he found the ad in the "women seeking men" category of Craigslist.

An arrest affidavit said that Bollinger had a history of methamphetamine and heroine use, and at the time of her death had a "potentially lethal level of heroin on the blood."

He told police that Bollinger asked him to shoot her, but he tried to change her mind.

The pair had texted each other dozens of times before meeting and they drove around for "an extended period" before Bollinger’s death, prosecutors said.

When Lopez realized he wouldn't be able change Bollinger's mind, he parked the car they were driving in and shot her, according to court documents.

He said he knelt down in front of Bollinger and they said a prayer together before he shot her with the gun Lopez claimed Bollinger provided.

An autopsy revealed that Bollinger died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

After shooting the teen, Lopez left the scene with Bollinger's purse and the gun, according to court records.

Read more: In the days before he murdered his wife and 2 kids, Chris Watts was Googling the price of an Audi and 'marrying your mistress'

Prosecutors said Lopez should have called 911 after finding Bollinger's Craigslist ad.

"He didn’t respond as a human being," chief deputy district attorney Ally Barber told WLKY. "He responded as a predator."

During an interview with investigators, Lopez said he had a journal in high school that included fictional stories of kidnapping, torturing and executing people, according to The Denver Post.

Due to the plea deal, Lopez will now spend a maximum of 48 years in prison, instead of the possible life sentence that a first-degree murder charge carries.

At Lopez's sentencing, Bollinger's father, Ted Bollinger, accused Lopez of taking advantage of his daughter.

"She was vulnerable and drugged," he said. "You premeditated. Brutally shot and killed my baby. I asked for an eye for an eye. You have been protected. The Bollinger family had no say in this. This is a deal with the devil."

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• Windi Thomas pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Keeno Butler, in Erie, Pennsylvania. 
• The pair had been arguing before his March death, and Thomas told police she used her own 300-pound body weight to crush Butler, who weight around 120 pounds. 
• Thomas faces up to 36 years in prison after pleading guilty. 

A 300-pound Pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty to murdering her 120-pound boyfriend by crushing him with her own weight.

Windi Thomas, a 44-year-old from Erie, faces up to 36 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder in the March death of 41-year-old Keeno Butler, according to GoErie.com.

Prosecutors said that Thomas killed Butler in March 2018 in the couple's apartment.

She told investigators that she smothered Butler with the weight of her body, and that she cut him on the hand with a knife and hit him with a table leg.

The reason the two were fighting remains unclear, but Thomas was reportedly drunk and wanted to smoke crack when the pair got into an argument, Fox 5 NY reported.

Read more:A woman was sexually assaulted as she lay dying, and her abuser was sentenced to less than three years

An autopsy ruled Butler's death a homicide "caused by respiratory insufficiency secondary to blunt force trauma to the neck and thoracic compression, exacerbated by blunt force trauma to the head," according to an affidavit.

Thomas called 911 after the altercation and told police she had killed Butler. His body was found on the living room floor of the couple's apartment.

Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced on December 21.

A third-degree murder conviction's maximum sentence is 20 to 40 years in prison.

As part of Thomas’s plea deal, the recommended sentence is 18 to 36 years, and Assistant Erie County District Attorney Jeremy Lightner dropped charges of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of the instrument of crime.

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• A former pastor accused of killing a woman and sexually assaulting 2 others was apprehended because he gave out his business card
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• In the days before he murdered his wife and 2 kids, Chris Watts was Googling the price of an Audi and 'marrying your mistress'

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• Police arrested the husband from an unsolved Australian murder case, 36 years after his wife went missing.
• The case has been brought to the public eye by "The Teacher's Pet" podcast, which describes the case as a "sordid story" and "probable murder."
• The podcast has been downloaded more than 10 million times in total.
• Dawson, now 70, will be charged with his wife's murder after he is extradited to Queensland, police said. 

Police have arrested the husband of a woman who went missing nearly 40 years ago, after an explosive podcast documenting her "probable murder" brought the case back to prominence. 

Officers in New South Wales, Australia, told ABC that Chris Dawson, now 70, was arrested on Wednesday in relation to the disappearance, which dates to 1982. According to ABC, he is expected to be charged with murder. 

Dawson was the subject of the podcast "The Teacher's Pet." Although police did not specifically link the arrest to the podcast, they said that media reporting had contributed to their operation.

He appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday where his bail request was denied by Judge Dennis Kinsella.  

"The Teacher's Pet" podcast chronicles the mystery. It describes how she went missing from a beach in northern Sydney on January 9, 1982. Her body was never recovered.

Read more: What to know before listening to 'The Teacher's Pet' podcast

It took Dawson six weeks to report her missing to police, a point of huge contention in the 15-episode podcast. 

The podcast, which won a national award in November, has been documenting episode-by-episode the minute details of the chilling case, and has brought Dawson back into the public eye. 

This is not the first time a true-crime show has reinvigorated a dormant case. The Emmy-winning show "Making a Murderer" documents the case of Steven Avery, a man who served 18 years in jail on a wrongful sexual assault and attempted murder conviction, only to be convicted again after he was freed and launched legal proceedings against police.

"The Teacher's Pet" describes how Dawson told his 33-year-old wife's family that she needed time away when they asked him where she was.

In the meantime, Dawson's young female lover moved into his family home, where their two children also lived.

The podcast also questions the role of police in the case, which has been heavily criticized. 

New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told ABC News that public media reports about the case had helped police obtain more witness statements.

Fuller said in September that police searched Lynette's former home and failed to find any "remains or items of interest," but that he hadn't given up hope of finding any, ABC said.

Dawson will be transported to Queensland from New South Wales to face murder charges, ABC said. 

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• A new ranking from Wallet Hub listed the safest and least safe cities in America.
• The least safe cities missed the mark when it came to community safety, natural disaster risk, and financial safety.

Some cities in the US miss the mark when it comes to safety.

Personal-finance site Wallet Hub recently published its list of the safest and least safe cities in the United States, and the ones at the bottom of the list scored poorly in several key areas.

The ranking compared safety metrics in 182 American cities — the 150 most populated in the country, as well as 32 more to ensure that each state had two representatives on the list.

It assigned ratings to each city in 39 different safety metrics, broken down into three major groups and weighted for importance:

• The highest-weighted category was home and community safety, including the presence of terrorist attacks, number of mass shootings, and rates of murder, rape, theft, assault, and hate crimes
• The second most-weighted category was natural disaster risk, including the risk levels of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, hail, tornadoes, and wildfires (in some cities, data was unavailable in this category)
• The third most-weighted category was financial safety, including rates of unemployment, poverty, foreclosures, job security, fraud complaints, and identify-theft complaints

You can read more about the methodology here.

Read on to see which cities were deemed the least safe in America.

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17. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky

Total score: 62.94

Home and community safety ranking: 133

Natural disaster risk ranking: N/A

Financial safety ranking: 28

16. St. Petersburg, Florida

Total score: 62.69

Home and community safety ranking: 110

Natural disaster risk ranking: N/A

Financial safety ranking: 122

15. Las Vegas, Nevada

Total score: 62.54

Home and community safety ranking: 167

Natural disaster risk ranking: 96

Financial safety ranking: 152

• Chelsea Watrous Cook, 32, snuck into her ex-husband's apartment on November 25 and shot dead his new girlfriend, 26-year-old Lisa Vilate Williams, according to documents filed in court this week.
• Williams was killed as she was decorating a Christmas tree with Cook's 3-year-old twin sons.
• Cook faces charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, domestic violence, felony discharge of a firearm, and two counts of violence in the presence of a child.

A 32-year-old high school health teacher lured her ex-husband out of his apartment so she could sneak in and kill his new 26-year-old girlfriend, according to court documents filed this week in Utah.

Chelsea Watrous Cook could face the death penalty after being charged with aggravated murder on Wednesday, among a slew of other charges.

According to prosecutors, Cook drove over to her ex-husband Travis Cook's apartment in Midvale just before 7 p.m. on November 25, saying she needed to drop off some cold medication for one of their three-year-old twin sons.

Security footage reportedly shows Cook lying in wait in a hallway of the building while her ex left the apartment to come out and meet her in the parking lot. She was then able to get into the apartment because he left the front door unlocked, charging documents KUTV obtained say.

At the time, Travis' news girlfriend, Lisa Vilate Williams, was decorating their Christmas tree with the kids.

When Travis returned to the apartment, his wife was inside and refusing to leave despite repeated commands to do so, according to the filing, and she locked herself in a bathroom when he started to call 911.

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Just a few seconds later, she exited the bathroom, pulled a gun out of her coat pocket and shot Williams three times, prosecutors say.

Travis grabbed the gun away from his ex-wife, and she went to sit by their kids, who had just witnessed the killing, according to the documents.

As he was on the phone with 911, the documents say Travis saw his wife reach for her coat again, and fearing that she had another weapon, he lunged for her and pinned her against a wall and ordered his boys to go to their rooms and lock the door.

Cook was taken into custody when police arrived on the scene soon after.

Immediately after news of the shooting broke, Cook was fired from her job as a health and yoga teacher at Skyridge High School in Lehi, Deseret News reported.

She remains in Salt Lake County Jail without bail. It's unclear when her trial will start.

According to Williams' mother, Tawny, Cook had been harassing her daughter.

The court documents also show that about a month before the shooting, Williams came up in a dispute between the Cooks in which the police were called.

Travis was trying to pick up his kids from his ex on October 16 when she made "disparaging comments" about his girlfriend, according to a police report the AP obtained. When he prompted one of his sons to say he was excited to see Williams, Cook reportedly grabbed her ex by his hair, causing him to tumble down a set of stairs.

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• The body of a US tourist who disappeared in Costa Rica was found near her Airbnb, and the property's security guard has been arrested

See the full charging documents KUTV obtained below:

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• The parents of Shanann Watts, the Colorado woman who was murdered by her husband along with her two young daughters, recently sat down for an interview with ABC News' "20/20".
• In one segment of the interview, Shanann's mother, Sandra Rzucek, said that after her daughter and granddaughters were first reported missing, Chris Watts didn't appear worried.
• "He didn't give a flying flip," she said.

The parents of Shanann Watts, the pregnant woman who was murdered along with her two young daughters by her cheating husband in August, have sat down for their first television interview.

In preview clips of their interview on ABC News' "20/20", Shanann's mother, Sandra Rzucek, said her daughter's husband did not appear worried when his wife and daughters were first reported missing.

"He didn't give a flying flip," Rzucek recalled.

Chris Watts would later admit to disposing of his three family members' bodies at an oil site where he worked, after strangling his wife and smothering his daughters, 4-year-old Bella and 3-year-old Celeste.

Before confessing to the three murders, Watts spoke to local reporters about the disappearance in a bizarre interview on the front porch of his house.

Read more:Text messages and phone records show pregnant Colorado woman murdered by her husband told friends before her death that he had 'changed' and didn't want another baby

Rzucek said she advised her son-in-law not to speak to the press, but he decided to anyway.

"I said, 'Chris, you know, I don't think you should do any media.' I said 'Um, you're the last one to have seen them. So I don't think you should.'

"I thank God he did. I thank God in heaven that he didn't listen to me," Rzucek said.

When Sandra and her husband Frank saw the interview, they said Watts was acting out of character.

He was "definitely somebody else," Shanann's mother said. "It was frightening."

Last month, Chris Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

The full interview with Sandra and Frank Rzucek is set to air on Friday night's episode of "20/20" at 10 p.m.

• Read more about the Chris Watts case:
• Mistress of Chris Watts, the man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and 2 daughters, speaks out about their affair
• 'I put my hands around my wife's neck': Video shows the chilling moment Chris Watts confessed to strangling his pregnant wife
• In the days before he murdered his wife and 2 kids, Chris Watts was Googling the price of an Audi and 'marrying your mistress'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how easy it is for the US president to launch a nuclear weapon

• Transcript of an audio recording from Jamal Khashoggi's brutal death reportedly describes him gasping for air in his final moments.
• A source, who was briefed on the investigation and read a translated transcript of the recording from the October 2 killing, told CNN that the audio suggested a carefully planned execution and not a botched interrogation as previously touted by the Saudis.
• The transcript also describes "sawing" and "cutting" that could be heard along with screaming.
• Men in the room were reportedly told to "put earphones in" or "listen to music" to block out the gruesome noises.

The transcript of an audio recording from Jamal Khashoggi's brutal killing reportedly describes the Saudi journalist gasping for air in his final moments.

A source, who was briefed on the investigation and read a translated transcript of the recording from the October 2 killing, told CNN that the audio suggested a carefully planned execution and not a botched interrogation as previously touted by the Saudis.

Descriptions of the tape recounting how Khashoggi suffocated have previously been reported. But CNN's report on Sunday is the fullest account of the transcript in Western media to date.

According to the source, the transcript began with Khashoggi entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul at about 1:15 p.m. to pick up routine paperwork for his coming marriage to his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside for him.

Khashoggi quickly realized something about the situation was off, as he recognized a man waiting inside, identified by CNN's source as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a former colleague and a prominent aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Read more: US hits 17 Saudis with sanctions over Khashoggi, including crown prince's top henchman who reportedly directed killing via Skype

According to the source, Khashoggi asked the man what he was doing there.

"You are coming back," Mutreb told Khashoggi.

"You can't do that," Khashoggi responded. "People are waiting outside."

Mutreb was also named by Turkish officials as one of the 15 Saudis suspected to have acted in Khashoggi's killing.

At that point the dialogue ended, the source said, as several people closed in on Khashoggi, who was left gasping for air in his final moments.

"I can't breathe," Khashoggi repeated several times. The transcript reportedly described screaming and gasps.

Other men, including a voice identified by Turkish authorities as Dr. Salah Muhammad al-Tubaiqi, the head of forensic medicine at Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry, could be heard along with Khashoggi's muffled pleas, the source said. The transcript then described "sawing" and "cutting" sounds.

Al-Tubaiqi could reportedly be heard telling the team in the room to block out the noise.

"Put your earphones in or listen to music like me," he said, reportedly according to the transcript.

Notably, the transcript describes at least three phone calls placed by Mutreb to someone who, according to previous assessments of the recording, is widely thought to be a senior Saudi official, possibly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's closest adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, or possibly even the crown prince. Mutreb reportedly gave the undisclosed person on the other end of the line step-by-step details of what transpired: "Tell yours, the thing is done, it's done."

Links to the crown prince

Calls for sanctions have grown louder in recent weeks, as details from the investigation into Khashoggi's killing continue to close in on the Saudi leadership.

Last week, senators from across party lines announced with a "high level of confidence" that Crown Prince Mohammed was "complicit" in Khashoggi's killing and introduced a measure calling for the crown prince to be "held accountable" for numerous human-rights abuses.

The move, led by Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Todd Young of Indiana and Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Chris Coons of Delaware, pins the blame directly onto the crown prince and hopes to spur the government and the international community to punish him accordingly.

Read more: Senators are now confident that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was 'complicit' in Jamal Khashoggi's death

"There is no doubt that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, condoned it, and at worst was actually involved in directing it," Rubio said in a statement Wednesday.

President Donald Trump and, separately, a small group of senators were briefed by the CIA on the investigation into Khashoggi's death. The CIA has previously concluded that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi's killing based on several pieces of intelligence, including the audio recording and security footage.

But the resolution is set to face hurdles by the Trump administration, as the president has recently doubled down on his defense of the Saudi crown prince and said the US-Saudi relationship is "paramount" in his decision making.

SEE ALSO: Senators are now confident that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was 'complicit' in Jamal Khashoggi's death

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NOW WATCH: Here's how easy it is for the US president to launch a nuclear weapon

• A 16-year-old high-school-football player, Aaron Trejo, was taken into custody on Sunday after the body of a 17-year-old girl, Breana Rouhselang, who was reportedly six months pregnant, was found in a dumpster.
• Rouhselang was reported missing on Saturday night. Police found her body early on Sunday.
• Police said the two had a relationship, the details and extent of which are still under investigation.

The body of 17-year-old Breana Rouhselang, who was reportedly six months pregnant, was found in a dumpster Sunday morning near South Bend, Indiana.

Police said they took 16-year-old Aaron Trejo, whom Rouhselang reportedly knew from their high school's football team, into custody on Sunday.

Rouhselang was reported missing by her family at about midnight on Saturday, and police recovered her body from a dumpster behind a restaurant near her home in Mishawaka.

Lt. Alex Arendt of the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit told the South Bend Tribune that Trejo and Rouhselang had a relationship, the details of which are still under investigation.

Arendt said Trejo received a "preliminary charge of murder" and is being held at St. Joseph County Jail.

Rouhselang's official cause of death is not yet known, but police said she had been shot, stabbed, or both.

An autopsy is expected later this week. Deputy Prosecutor Chris Fronk told NBC affiliate WSBT that formal sentencing was set for Monday.

Read more: 8 unsolved stories of young people who have gone missing across the US

Rouhselang's stepmother told reporters that she was a cheerleader, football manager, and softball player at nearby Mishawaka High School.

Pasquale Rulli's, the restaurant where Rouhselang's body was recovered, posted on Facebook, "Our condolences to the families involved in the tragedy that took place by our restaurant overnight."

The School City of Mishawaka said in a statement Sunday that administrators were working with investigators to get to the bottom of the "terrible tragedy."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members and friends who have been affected by this great loss," the statement read. "Our focus now is to offer all of the support possible to our staff and students."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 airline industry secrets that will help you fly like a pro this holiday season

• Brian Winchester testified against Denise Williams in a Florida court on Tuesday. 
• The pair are accused of plotting the murder of Mike Williams — Denise Williams' husband and Winchester's childhood best friend — so that they could be together.
• Winchester has confessed to police that he shot Mike Williams during a fishing trip in 2000.
• Denise Williams was arrested in May on charges of murder, conspiracy, and accessory after the fact.

A Florida man accused of killing his childhood best friend so he could be with the man's wife cried in court as he described the murder.

Brian Winchester testified on Tuesday against Denise Williams, who is on trial for allegedly plotting the death of her first husband, Mike Williams, The New York Post reported.

Williams disappeared on a boating trip to Lake Seminole in 2000, and Williams and Winchester are accused of plotting his murder by staging it as a boating accident and collecting his $1.75 million life insurance policy.

Mike Williams's body wasn't found for 17 years, and police initially thought he was eaten by alligators after falling off of a fishing boat, according to CBS News.

It was revealed years later that Mike Williams had died from a shotgun wound to the head and was buried by the lake north of Tallahassee.

Winchester confessed last year to killing Mike Williams and repeated the confession in court on Tuesday.

He said he first pushed his friend overboard in an attempt to drown him, but Mike was able to stay afloat by swimming to a stump in the lake.

"He started to yell and I didn't know how to get out of that situation," Winchester testified. "I had my gun in the boat, and so I loaded my gun and I just made one or two circles around and I ended up circling closer towards him and he was in the water, and as I passed by, I shot him."

Prosecutors allege that Denise Williams and Winchester were involved in a three-year affair at the time of Mike's death.

Winchester had known Mike Williams since middle school, but said he didn't fall for Denise until he and his first wife, Kathy, started going on double dates with the Williamses in Tallahassee. 

"We just connected like nobody else," he said of their relationship. "It snowballed really fast."

Denise and Winchester married in 2005, five years after Williams' death. They later divorced in 2016.

He broke down in tears as he described taking part in the search for Mike's body after he was reported missing.

"I think [my dad and I] were the last ones. My dad didn't want to give up," Winchester said. "He loved Mike."

Read more:A high-school-football player was arrested after the body of a pregnant 17-year-old cheerleader was found in a dumpster

Mike Williams's body was found last year after Winchester pleaded no contest to kidnapping Denise at gunpoint in 2016 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors offered him immunity from murder charges in Mike's case if he revealed information about the man's disappearance.

The details led to Denise Williams being arrested last May on charges of murder, conspiracy and accessory after the fact.

"Denise really didn't have to do a whole lot other than come up with an alibi for herself and make sure that Mike went," Winchester said in court on Tuesday, WCTV reported.

Williams faces life in prison if she's convicted. Her lawyers have denied Winchester's claim that Denise played a role in the murder plot.

"There is no tangible evidence or physical evidence tying Denise Williams to this crime," attorney Philip Padovano said. "All you will have to go on is the word of the man who actually committed the murder."

• Read more:
• 'He didn't give a flying flip': Shanann Watts' mother speaks about how emotionless her daughter's husband was when she was first reported missing
• Prosecutors say a woman in Utah snuck into her ex's apartment and then shot his new girlfriend dead in front of their 3-year-old twin sons
• Police arrested a husband over a 1982 cold case murder after a podcast brought it back to prominence
• A 300-pound woman pleaded guilty to crushing her 120-pound boyfriend to death with her own body weight

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 things you shouldn't buy on Black Friday

• A video released by the Weld County District Attorney's Office shows the moment Chris Watts realized he had been caught in a lie.
• Last month, Watts was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences after admitting he killed his pregnant wife and two young daughters.
• The recently released video shows Watts watching a neighbor's surveillance footage that proved his wife never left the home with their daughters the day they disappeared, as he had claimed to police.
• Instead, it shows Watts suspiciously loading up his vehicle and driving off in the pre-dawn hours, shortly after his wife was seen returning home from a business trip.

Newly released video shows the moment Chris Watts, 33, realized his alibi didn't hold up after his pregnant wife and two young daughters went missing.

The video, released in a records request by the Longmont Times-Call and confirmed by INSIDER, was taken on a Frederick Police Department officer's body camera, and shows Watts at his neighbor's house, watching surveillance video that captured his activities the morning that his wife Shanann, 34, and daughters Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, disappeared.

Watts told police that his wife ran off with their daughters while he was at work that day, but the footage only shows Watts leaving the house during that period.

The footage also captured Shanann returning to the home in the early hours of August 13, after flying back from a business trip in Arizona.

Just a few hours later, Watts is seen backing his vehicle into the driveway in the pre-dawn hours, loading it up and driving off.

Read more:'I put my hands around my wife's neck': Video shows the chilling moment Chris Watts confessed to strangling his pregnant wife

Autopsy reports show that Shanann was strangled while the two girls were smothered. Later, after failing a polygraph test, Watts confessed to killing his wife but said that she killed their daughters when he told her he wanted a divorce.

He later confessed to killing all three and was sentenced last month to three consecutive life in prison sentences. He led investigators to the location where he disposed of their bodies, at an oil site where he worked.

In the video, Watts looks nervous as he watches the surveillance footage, captured by his neighbor Nathaniel Trinastich.

About a minute into the video, Watts puts his hands on his head and looks away from the screen.

Near the end of the video, Watts goes outside to speak to a detective, while Officer Scott Coonrod stays and talks to Trinastich.

Once Watts is out of the room, Trinastich turns to the officer and says, "He's not acting right."

Trinastich goes on to say that he and his wife often hear the couple arguing and that they were concerned something happened to Shanann when she left to spend most of the summer with her daughters in North Carolina.

"To be completely honest with you, my wife and I were wondering when she was on vacation if something happened, because I've heard them flat-out screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, and he gets crazy," he said.

• Read more about the Chris Watts case:
• Mistress of Chris Watts, the man accused of murdering his pregnant wife and 2 daughters, speaks out about their affair
• Text messages and phone records show pregnant Colorado woman murdered by her husband told friends before her death that he had 'changed' and didn't want another baby
• 'He didn't give a flying flip': Shanann Watts' mother speaks about how emotionless her daughter's husband was when she was first reported missing
• In the days before he murdered his wife and 2 kids, Chris Watts was Googling the price of an Audi and 'marrying your mistress'

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Sarah Papenheim, a 21-year-old from Minneapolis, Minnesota, died in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, on Wednesday. 
• Her 23-year-old roommate has been arrested and is a suspect in her death. 
• Police had responded to reports of fighting and screaming before they found Papenheim stabbed and unconscious.

A 21-year-old Minnesota college student was stabbed to death while studying abroad in the Netherlands, police said on Friday.

Sarah Papenheim, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, died on Wednesday from stab wounds in the Rotterdam apartment she shared with a 23-year-old male roommate, according to CNN.

Police had responded to reports of fighting and screaming when they found Papenheim stabbed and unconscious, local station AD.nl reported. Emergency responders failed to resuscitate her.

Papenheim's roommate, who police say is a suspect in the woman's death, fled the city but was captured by police 60 miles west of Rotterdam in Eindhoven.

The 23-year-old's name has not been released by police, but he and Papenheim were believed to be acquaintances, Rotterdam police told ABC News.

Police said the suspect was a cello player, and he and Papenheim had bonded over being musicians.

Papenheim was a rising blues and jazz drummer in Minnesota and had been studying psychology at Erasmus University for two years.

Read more:A man wearing a skull and crossbones t-shirt crashed a wedding and fractured a guest's skull, police say

Her mother, Donee Odegard, told ABC News that she is now childless, after also losing her son to suicide nearly three years ago.

Odegard said her daughter was worried about the suspect's behavior in the days before her death because he was "acting strange."

She told the Star Tribune that police and Papenheim's boyfriend, who lived in Rotterdam, told her that the roommate in the "last couple of weeks was getting more and more angry."

Family friends have since launched a GoFundMe to raise money to bring Papenheim's body back to Minnesota.

Erasmus University officials released a statement about Papenheim's death to ABC News.

"The university is shocked by this terrible incident and is taking care of upset students and employees and will act towards relatives according to our protocols," a university spokeswoman said in a statement. "We encourage our students and staff not to let each other alone in this difficult time and to get in touch with student-advisors and psychologists if they want to."

• Read more about crime:
• 'It snowballed really fast': A man tells a court how he killed his best friend to be with the man’s wife
• A high-school-football player was arrested after the body of a pregnant 17-year-old cheerleader was found in a dumpster
• Prosecutors say a woman in Utah snuck into her ex's apartment and then shot his new girlfriend dead in front of their 3-year-old twin sons
• Police have killed the suspected Strasbourg shooting suspect, French officials say

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• Last year, a worker at a Franz Bakery Outlet in Bellingham, Washington, learned one of her co-workers, Timothy Bass, was a suspect in the 1989 rape and murder of 18-year-old Mandy Stavik.
• She stole a Coca Cola can that Bass discarded after lunch one day and handed it over to police to see if they could get DNA evidence from it.
• The DNA was a match for Stavik's suspected rapist, and Bass is set to go to trial in April for her murder.

A bakery worker helped Washington state investigators finally make an arrest in a 28-year-old cold case murder.

Last year, the unnamed worker at Franz Bakery Outlet in Bellingham saw police come by her work asking around about co-worker Timothy Forrest Bass, 51, according to the Bellingham Herald.

She learned from a detective that Bass was a suspect in the November 1989 rape and murder of 18-year-old Mandy Stavik, whose naked body was found in a river a few miles from her home three days after she disappeared on a run.

Bass was not a suspect in 1989, but he came under suspicion in 2013, when cops launched an effort to collect voluntary DNA samples from Stavik's neighbors, and he refused to take a swab, the Herald reported.

They tried to get his company to cooperate and help them collect DNA evidence that they could test against the samples obtained on Stavik's body, but Franz declined, according to the newspaper.

Read more:Police finally have arrested a suspect in the 'Golden State Killer' case that's been cold for 42 years — and he's a former cop

When the worker learned all of this, she decided to take things into her own hands, having a daughter herself and feeling for the family.

On August 10, 2017, the worker reportedly saw Bass toss out a plastic cup and a Coke can. She retrieved it from the trash and handed it over to the police.

"After I asked if it was that case and who it was, I felt a basic human moral obligation to help," the woman said during a court hearing in August, according to the Herald.

The cup and can were sent to the crime lab and the sample came back as a match, according to the newspaper.

It was that piece of evidence that proved pivotal in the December 12, 2017 arrest of Bass on first-degree murder charges, the Herald reported at the time.

At first, one of his public defenders, Stephen Jackson, tried to get the DNA evidence thrown out, saying that it violated his client's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure, and that his co-worker was acting as an agent of the state.

But a judge ruled in August that the evidence was allowed since the co-worker came up with the idea on her own. Jackson twice appealed the decision, but lost both times, most recently last Friday.

"I’m disappointed at the appellate court's decision," Jackson said Friday. "Now the focus is only on preparing for trial and showing that Mr. Bass had nothing to do with this case."

Bass' trial is slated to start on April 8. He entered a not guilty plea in February 2018, the Star-Telegram reported.

• Read more crime stories on INSIDER:
• An American college student was stabbed to death while studying abroad in the Netherlands
• A man wearing a skull and crossbones t-shirt crashed a wedding and fractured a guest's skull, police say
• Video shows the moment Chris Watts realized he had been caught in a lie after murdering his wife and 2 young daughters
• The former Baylor fraternity president accused of rape has been banned from the campus of his current university, UT-Dallas

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why Harvard scientists think this interstellar object might be an alien spacecraft

• Louisa Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were found dead in Morocco with "evidence of violence to their necks" on December 18.
• Their bodies were found in their tent 6 miles outside the village of Imlil in the High Atlas Mountains.
• The women, who studied together at the University of South-Eastern Norway, had been backpacking through Morocco.
• Three suspects were arrested in Marrakesh in connection to the women's deaths.

Three men have been arrested in Morocco after two Scandinavian backpackers were found murdered in their tent near a popular hiking spot.

The bodies of Louisa Jespersen, 24, from Denmark, and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway, were discovered six miles outside the village of Imlil in the High Atlas Mountains on December 18.

The women's bodies had "evidence of violence to their necks," the Moroccan Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The three men arrested in connection to the women's murders are residents of Marrakech, according to Norway Today, though their names have not been released.

The women, who studied together at the University of Southeastern Norway, were on a month-long trip across the North African country when they were killed, The Sun reported.

The women were "allegedly found decapitated," a tourist who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Morocco World News, though the report has not been verified.

Local media report that officials have video surveillance showing three suspects putting a tent up near the women's tent, and leaving after the killing.

One of the suspects left his ID behind at the camp, The Sun reported.

Police are investigating whether or not the women had been traveling with a guide before their deaths, according to France 24.

Imlil is a popular starting point for hiking tours to Mount Toubkal, the highest summit in North Africa. Security has been stepped up in the region following the double murder.

Read more: An American college student was stabbed to death while studying abroad in the Netherlands

Danish police sent an officer to Morocco on Wednesday to assist with the investigation.

In the days before traveling to Imlil, Jespersen had written on Facebook asking for advice about Most Toubkal.

"Any of you guys whos around by then or any mountain friends who knows something about Mount Toubkal?" she asked. 

Her mother, Helle Jespersen, told Danish newspaper BT that she urged her daughter not to go on the trip.

"We advised her to go down because it's such a chaotic place, and you've heard of people who have been killed down there," she said.

Ueland's mother said her daughter's "first priority was safety."

"The girls had taken all the precautionary measures before embarking on this trip,” she told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

The women were studying "outdoor activities and cultural guidance" at the University of Southeastern Norway.

An investigation into their deaths is still ongoing. 

• Read more:
• A bakery worker helped cops nab her co-worker as a cold case murder suspect by stealing his discarded Coke can for DNA evidence
• Video shows the moment Chris Watts realized he had been caught in a lie after murdering his wife and 2 young daughters
• 'It snowballed really fast': A man tells a court how he killed his best friend to be with the man’s wife
• Women are accusing Sandals Resorts of covering up sexual assaults on its properties in Jamaica with free stays and refunds

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The true story behind the name 'Black Friday' is much darker than you may have thought

• Maj. Matthew Golsteyn has been charged with a war crime following a 2016 interview on Fox News, where he admitted to killing a suspected Taliban bomb maker in 2010.
• In 2011, Golsteyn told the CIA that he killed the Afghan man, who was believed to be unarmed after being released from custody. In another interview, Golsteyn said military rules required him to release the suspect.
• Golsteyn's attorney says the charges are based on an inaccurate portrayal of Golsteyn's statement to the CIA.
• On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted his support of Golsteyn, lauding him as a hero — which may ultimately sink the Army's case.

President Donald Trump announced an unprecedented review of a former Army Green Beret, who had been charged with murder for the 2010 killing of a suspected Taliban bomb-maker.

"He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a terrorist bomb maker while overseas," the president said in a tweet Sunday.

The charges against Army Maj. Matthew Golsteyn mark the latest step in a 9-year probe aimed at resolving whether the decorated former Green Beret is a war hero, as many believe — or a war criminal. The Army opened its latest investigation in December 2016, after Golsteyn admitted in an interview with Fox News to killing the suspected terrorist while his unit was deployed in Afghanistan.

The interview, which took place in October 2016, was part of a pre-election Fox News special discussing rules of engagement, which had become more restrictive during the Obama administration. In it, Golsteyn said military rules required him to release the suspect.

Golsteyn appears to be standing by his 2016 admission that he killed the Afghan, but disputes that he killed the man in cold blood. Instead, he claims that he and another soldier set out after the suspect soon his release, believing he still posed an imminent threat to US troops.

During the Fox News interview, Golsteyn described the circumstances of the suspected Taliban militant's detainment.

The Afghan was suspected of involvement in the killing of two Marines, who died in an explosion. Golsteyn said in the interview that Afghan tribal leaders helped identify the suspect. US forces detained the man, but because of strict rules of engagement they had to release him. 

In the interview, Golsteyn said he was concerned that the Afghans who aided US forces would be targeted by the suspected bomb maker.

"It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed," Golsteyn said. 

The Army's case 

Golsteyn received a Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for valor in combat, for actions during his deployment in Afghanistan. But after he detailed the incident in an interview with the CIA, the Army opened an investigation and stripped his award. He was also removed from the Special Forces.

According to Army documents obtained by the Washington Post, Golsteyn reportedly told the CIA that he and another soldier escorted the suspect back to his home but rather than releasing him, they assassinated the unarmed Afghan man. The Army documents also allege that Golsteyn and two other soldiers later burned the body in a trash pit at their base compound.

But the same Army documents show that members of his unit expressed doubt that the officer would kill an unarmed suspect, and investigators found no evidence of a corpse in several burn pits, according to the Post. 

The Army's investigators did not have enough evidence to press charges.  

Now prosecutors may be able to use Golsteyn's on-air confession to bolster their case. Otherwise, Golsteyn's attorney Phil Stackhouse says there is nothing new.

"They have insinuated to me that they have new evidence," Stackhouse told Fox News. "I don't believe there is any new evidence at all."

Golsteyn says the charges are based on a 'complete lie'

"They quoted me as saying that me and someone else with me took a detainee to his home and assassinated him. The problem is I never said that," Golsteyn told NBC News on Thursday. "It was a complete lie."

NBC News reported Golsteyn stands by what he told Fox News in 2016, but maintains that he did not violate military law. Stackhouse made an appearance on Fox and Friends Sunday morning to support his client. In the interview, Stackhouse said that shortly after releasing the Afghan man, Golsteyn and another Special Forces soldier set out after him, maintaining that the man was planning to continue making bombs for the Taliban and posed an imminent threat to US forces.

Will Trump's tweet sink the Army's case?

Trump's decision to tweet his support for the former Green Beret is an unprecedented move that may prove beneficial to Golsteyn's defense.

The president lauded Golsteyn as a "US Military hero," which could count as a violation of unlawful command influence — a tenet of the military justice system that prohibits leaders from influencing the outcome of a court-martial. But it is typically flagged when leaders prevent a defendant's access to due process, and does not necessarily apply in this case, experts told Task & Purpose.

It is unclear whether Trump's tweet means he intends to ever grant Golsteyn a pardon, and the president can still do so at any point. 

As far as the Army's treatment of Golsteyn, Stackhouse told Fox News, "I think he's been betrayed."

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• Denmark's prime minister says the killing of two Scandinavian backpackers in Morocco this week was "politically motivated and thus an act of terror."
• Louisa Jespersen from Denmark and Maren Ueland from Norway were found dead Monday in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains.
• Moroccan authorities are investigating a beheading video shared online that appears to show the killing of Jespersen. The video is similar to those released by the Islamic State terrorist group showing the execution of Western prisoners.
• Danish security forces on Thursday said the killings "may be related to the terrorist organization Islamic State."
• Four men have been arrested.

The killing of two Scandinavian backpackers on a Moroccan hiking trail was an "act of terror," Denmark's prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said Thursday.

Louisa Jespersen, 24, from Denmark and Maren Ueland, 28, from Norway were found dead Monday in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains. Rasmussen made the declaration as officials are investigating a video of a beheading posted online that appears to show the killing of Jespersen. Officials said the killing might be linked to the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Danish prime minister's office tweeted a statement from Rasmussen on Thursday, saying the killings were "politically motivated and thus an act of terror."

Danish intelligence officials in separate briefings on Thursday said that the video showed one of the women and that they thought it could be the work of the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"The video and preliminary investigation according to the Moroccan authorities indicate that the killings may be related to the terrorist organization Islamic State," they said, Reuters reported.

Moroccan prosecutors said they were reviewing the video footage. INSIDER has also seen the footage, which we have chosen not to reproduce.

It shows the death of a blindfolded woman who appears to be Jespersen wearing a white T-shirt. A man severs her head with a knife. The video is similar to those released by ISIS showing the executions of Western prisoners.

BBC Monitoring reported on Thursday that one man in the video said, "This is in revenge for our brothers in Hajin," referring to the Syrian town ISIS recently lost.

ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the backpackers' deaths, but the BBC reported that known ISIS sympathizers on the messaging app Telegram shared a post on Wednesday saying: "The perpetrators say they did it for Muslims in Hajin who are being bombed by the [anti-IS] international coalition, of which Denmark and Norway are members."

The Moroccan state TV station 2M said on its website that investigators believe the killings were an act of terror, according to the Associated Press. It did not link the act to any named group.

As of Thursday, Moroccan authorities have arrested four men who live near Marrakech in connection to the women's deaths, Morocco World News reported.

At least one of those arrested is linked to an Islamic extremist group.

The women, both of whom studied outdoor activities and cultural guidance at the University of South-Eastern Norway, were on a monthlong trip across Morocco.

They were found about 6 miles from the small village of Imlil, which is a common starting point for people heading up Mount Toubkal, North Africa's highest peak.

Violence against tourists in Morocco is extremely rare.

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