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Mother of ‘missing' daughter appears in Rock Island County Court

Mother of ‘missing' daughter appears in Rock Island County Court

Yahoo04-04-2025
Proceedings in the case of a woman accused of reporting her daughter missing when the child was safe at home were decided Thursday in Rock Island County Court.
In a brief appearance, 37-year-old Princess Ilunga sat with other people in the courtroom and waited for the judge to call her case number and name. Her attorney and the prosecutor discussed whether extended media coverage – whether a camera will be allowed in the courtroom – is appropriate.
The defense attorney asked that photojournalists show Ilunga only in street clothes. The judge said extended media coverage should be granted because so many people in the community were involved in the search for Ilunga's daughter Blessing Aoci.
Our Quad Cities News crew saw Ilunga sit quietly in the courtroom with a group of supporters.
Additionally, the judge wanted to clarify that all pretrial proceedings will be held without an interpreter because Ilunga understands English well enough to follow court procedures.
The case is tentatively scheduled for a jury trial. Once the trial begins, a Swahili interpreter will be present.
Ilunga's attorney asked for a continuance, citing the need to examine hundreds of hours of officers' body-cam video. The prosecution said there are more than 600 pieces of evidence in this case.
The judge said a status hearing will be scheduled for 8 a.m. June 13 in Rock Island County Court. At a status hearing, the judge, attorneys and sometimes the person accused will discuss the case's progress and the next steps in court proceedings.
Ilunga, who earlier reported her daughter, 4-year-old Blessing Aoci, was missing in a stolen car, faces a Class D felony charge of filing a false police report after law enforcement discovered the child had been safe at home the whole time.
A community joins law enforcement in a search
On Jan. 16, Ilunga called 911 shortly after 6 a.m. and reported her vehicle, which was left running, was stolen. During the call, Ilunga told the dispatcher six times that her daughter was in the car. 'It's important to note that Ms. Ilunga speaks very good English, albeit with an accent,' said Rock Island Police Chief McCloud at an earlier news conference. 'She is easy to understand.'
At 6:24 a.m., the stolen car was found about eight blocks away, abandoned and with no sign of Blessing.
An Amber Alert was issued, followed by a mobilization of local, state and federal law enforcement resources 'on a scale not seen in my 30 years in the Quad Cities,' McCloud said at the news conference. 'We had upwards of 120 law enforcement officers working hundreds of man hours, joined by countless concerned citizens from around the area who walked block by block in cold temperatures, drove around in vehicles and shared information through social media.'
Searchers considered every possibility – that Blessing had been transferred to another stolen car, that she had gotten out of the stolen car and was lost, or that she had been abducted by someone else.
Throughout the day, officers responded to numerous unfounded sightings of Blessing, as well as reports of pink backpacks or pink coats left abandoned in alleys or back yards, while numerous calls for service were put on hold as all resources were diverted to the search for Blessing.
After about nine hours of intensive searching, McCloud said, 'Blessing suddenly showed up at the back door to her residence, unharmed, showing no signs of distress or even of having been out in the cold temperatures.'
Body cams support the findings. 'We have tried to understand why (Ilunga) would invent this story, but when confronted with all the information, the family stopped cooperating with the investigation,' McCloud said.
'During the course of the investigation, we learned that Blessing had, in fact, been inside her own residence the entire time, her identity hidden from officers by her mother from the moment officers arrived,' McCloud said. Body-camera footage showed Blessing inside the residence, no longer wearing the pink coat she earlier was described as wearing.
'This was, by all account, an intentional deception that wasted the time and resources of six local law enforcement agencies, the Illinois State Police, the FBI and the federal marshals,' McCloud said.
Ilunga has seven children, many close in age and all with familial resemblances, 'so there was no reason to believe that (the girl Ilunga referred to as 'Baraka') and Blessing were not one and the same,' said McCloud. 'In fact, Ms. Ilunga actually pointed to 'Baraka' and said that Blessing looks just like her sister. '
Ilunga advised officers not to speak with 'Baraka' 'because she was too young and did not speak very well,' he said.
As officers pored over body-camera footage, they determined Ilunga was lying.
'Throughout the day, we had a detective assigned as a liaison for Ms. Ilunga,' McCloud said. 'Body camera and other video evidences show Ms. Ilunga continued to perpetuate the lie several times. It was only when our detective had to run back to the station that Ms. Ilunga seized her opportunity to put the pink coat back onto Blessing, and took her outside into the alley where she was found shortly thereafter by a citizen,' McCloud said.Play Video
'We have tried to understand why she would invent this story, but when confronted with all the information, the family stopped cooperating with the investigation,' McCloud said.
Immediately after the girl was 'found,' the family vanished. Later, Ilunga was arrested in Wisconsin, and was transported back to Rock Island. She is on pretrial release.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Niagara couple's Caribbean vacation from hell
Niagara couple's Caribbean vacation from hell

Hamilton Spectator

timean hour ago

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Niagara couple's Caribbean vacation from hell

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The officers used a pickup truck without seatbelts to transfer them to a Dirección Nacional de Control de Drogas compound in Punta Cana. The agency, known by the acronym DNC, focuses on drug-related crime. High brick walls topped with barbed wire surrounded the detention centre. The agents were armed with assault rifles and handguns. They were having a barbecue in the courtyard as DiPietro and Crawford were led to separate holding cells. 'I keep a low profile in life,' Crawford said. 'I restarted my social media accounts for the first time in years to spread information around the GoFundMe. It was so strange. I try to be kind and respectful to everyone. I was speechless. It was so random.' DiPietro said their friends at home were shocked. Zach had never smoked marijuana. She had never smoked a cigarette. 'When I was in jail, the inmates told me the Dominican makes money off tourism, tourism crime, and drugs,' Crawford said. 'They got us for all three, and then made a profit holding us and dragging out this case.' Their story is similar to that of a Burlington resident, David Bennett, who Dominican authorities arrested in Punta Cana over accusations of smuggling drugs. Bennett endured a 71-day ordeal in the Caribbean country until the charges were withdrawn in April. David Bennett arrived at Pearson airport Friday night. Crawford and DiPietro were detained on a Friday evening. Crawford was released on Saturday on a $10,000 cash bond. He was free to return to Canada but wasn't going anywhere without DiPietro, who had a hearing scheduled Monday, where the court would charge her and issue a travel ban. 'The cells were at the end of a corridor, and it was pitch black,' Crawford said. 'The cop used the flashlight on his phone to look through a ring with dozens of keys to find the right one. I couldn't see anybody's faces in the jail cell. I didn't know what I was going into.' On his release, Crawford had contacted family and friends at home. DiPietro's mother found them a lawyer and jetted to the Dominican Republic with her boyfriend. Crawford said when they met the prosecutor, he told them the DNC had 'nothing on them and charges didn't make sense,' but since the investigation had started, there was no way to avoid the process. The court released DiPietro on a $6,000 cash bond after her Dominican lawyer 'fought like hell all day' to get the charges withdrawn. They initially stayed in a hotel room before her mother and boyfriend had to return home. Burlington's David Bennett is finally home months after he was detained in Dominican Republic on Crawford and DiPietro then moved from resort to resort, based on which was offering the lowest rate for the week. They also had concerns at home. Their German shepherd puppy, Ranger, was boarding with its breeder/trainer. 'She was happy to take him — for a week — but was wondering when we were going to pick him up,' DiPietro said. 'We didn't have anybody else who we could leave him with. Our friends and family all work full time, and some don't have the space for a dog either.' Their struggle for freedom cost them dearly, starting with lost wages. They drained their line of credit and maxed out credit cards to pay for lawyer fees, bail, accommodations and utilities back home. They had to board Ranger for three months. DiPietro lived with a gnawing fear that she could lose her nursing license. To add insult to injury, they had to pay an extra $60 daily fee at the airport for having stayed in the country for more than 30 days. 'All we wanted was our first vacation together and enjoy the time together and return home to our normal life,' DiPietro said. 'We can't do that because we're still picking up pieces and dealing with the mental-health struggles and everything else that we've had to do to try to rebuild our life.' They have set up a GoFundMe campaign: 'Wrongfully Detained Abroad: Help us Rebuild.' So far, they have raised more than $20,000 of their $80,000 goal. The GoFundMe page says any donation — no matter how small — will make an incredible difference. And if someone is unable to donate, simply sharing their story will help more than they realize. 'It's going to take us a long time to recover from this,' Crawford said. 'I want to marry her, and it's going to take years before we can even think about it financially.' Crawford went to see her in jail on the day after his release and hugged her like he never wanted to let her go. 'The whole time I was in jail, I was just trying to keep my head down,' DiPietro said. 'You don't want to stand out, but you don't want to appear weak. When he was hugging me, I started crying, and then I completely broke down, and I couldn't stop. I was trying my best just to hold it all together.' There were 10 other women in the jail cell. She was the only foreigner. No one spoke English. One woman was in charge. The lawyer brought her food daily and toilet paper. She told DiPietro to slip the prisoner in charge of the cell $10 a day. 'There were one or two girls who kind of looked after me,' DiPietro said. 'You don't have a toothbrush. You don't have soap. The toilet is out in the open. If they are cleaning, you are expected to join in.' They were in contact with the Canadian Embassy almost daily but said the staff couldn't do much to help as the weeks and months went by, though it felt good to speak to someone in English. 'There was no financial assistance, no shelter, the asylum, no help with food,' DiPietro said. 'We gave them our story, and that was it. We had to survive on our own.' 'We were taking it one week at a time,' Crawford said. 'We were under suspicion. We were led to believe it would be a quick turnaround, but it seemed like everyone in government in the Dominican (was) laid back. Their priority is not paperwork. They go at their own pace.' They provided the authorities with proof they owned their own house, copies of their bills. They supplied character witness letters, their records with WestJet showing they have only checked two bags. They also had video footage showing two suitcases at both airports in Canada and Pearson. 'It was an uphill battle just to find all the documents back home, just to get that notarized, and then apostle to just in court,' DiPietro said. 'Everything also had to be translated to Spanish by an official court translator.' A couple of days after their release, they were watching the news in Spanish when they saw the storyline, 'Canadienses arrestados en el aeropuerto por cargos de drogas.' The newscast paired the voice-over with the video of them in handcuffs at the airport. Crawford said they spent their time glued to their phones. The day would start with texts and emails, as well as contacting the embassy and checking with their lawyer. They would leave the room for a 20-minute lunch, followed by more texting and emailing until their 20-minute supper. 'Then we were back in the room again, and before bed, we would watch Spanish TV and try to unwind a little bit,' Crawford said. 'About the only thing we did was go to the beach on the weekend.' By the third month, they had both started to feel numb. 'We started anticipating that things were going to go wrong,' Crawford said. 'We would get a little piece of hope, and it would always come crashing down. You get to the point where you don't want to be too hopeful.' DiPietro said the good news finally came out of the blue on a June day. 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Venezuelan migrant files wrongful detention claim against DHS
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Yahoo

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Malcolm-Jamal Warner Death: Police Clarify Daughter Wasn't in Water During Drowning, Timeline of Events

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