The Middlesex District Attorney’s office said that two men last heard from on March 30 remain missing and they need the public’s help in finding them.
Friends and co-workers reported that Pavel Vekshin, 28, and Kiryl Schukin, 37, who lived in an apartment on Locust Street in Medford, missing on April 9, but that they hadn’t heard from them for more than a week beforehand.
“Since the time of their reported disappearance, police have been actively investigating this case and believe the men’s cell phones are off,” the DA’s office wrote in a Friday statement, adding that police had located a vehicle belonging to one or both of the men, “their whereabouts remain unknown.”
Investigators ask that anyone with any information contact State Police detectives in Middlesex County at 781-897-6600 and/or Medford Police detectives at 781-391-6767.
The 34-year-old California man who wrote threats like “I am going to shoot and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions in order to pander to the tranny mafia” to the Springfield headquarter of dictionary company Merriam-Webster was sentenced on Thursday in federal court in Springfield to a year and a day in prison for his threats.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, Calif., pleaded guilty in September 2022 to one count of interstate communication of threatening communications to commit violence against the employees of Merriam-Webster, and to another count charging the same offense, initially filed in the Eastern District of Texas, targeting the President of the University of North Texas.
But he didn’t stop there. As part of his plea agreement, the feds say, Hanson admitted to threatening he Walt Disney Co., the Governor of California, the Mayor of New York City, a New York rabbi and professors at Loyola Marymount University.
As the Herald previously reported, Hanson made some of the threats in the comment section under definitions, like this comment under “Female” on Oct. 2, 2021: “It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.”
He allegedly did the same for the entry on “Girl,” according to the court doc: “The moron who created this fake definition should be hunted down and shot.”
Juan Medina, 20, was arraigned in municipal court in Roxbury on Friday in relation to the March 26 death of 60-year-old Edigio D’Antuony. Prosecutors say that Medina’s driving sparked a chain reaction that sent another car hurtling into a porch where D’Antuony was with another man who was also seriously injured.
“This is a tragic incident made all the more tragic by the fact that it was caused by a driver who simply didn’t wait until the lane was clear to make a turn,” Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “That negligent operating action resulted in one man dead, another seriously injured and the driver facing substantial criminal charges. It was all preventable by adhering to basic driving practices.”
Assistant DA Colleen O’Neill said that Medina was driving his white Honda CRV southbound on Washington Street in Roslindale at around 5 p.m. when he turned into the northbound lane, “causing a gray Honda Accord to strike a nearby minivan and then a house located at 3968 Washington Street.”
O’Neill added that police obtained video that showed Medina step out of his car, talk on his phone and then leave the scene — all in the span of eight minutes — without speaking to police or identifying himself.
Medina is charged with motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, leaving the scene of personal injury or death and failing to yield at an intersection, a civil infraction. Judge Michael Bolden released Medina but ordered that he not dive and have no contact with the surviving victim or either victim’s family.
The Boston Police Department is seeking the public’s help in finding Samantha Powell, 39, of Mattapan, who has been missing for nearly two weeks and who they say suffers from unspecified “mental health issues.”
Police say she was last seen April 3 in the area of 2100 Dorchester Ave. wearing an orange fleece jacket over a red dress with black leggings, as well as black sneakers. She is about 5-foot-3 and has short black hair.
Police ask that anyone with information contact 911 or area detectives at 617-343-4712. Alternatively, tipsters can give information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers Tip Line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS (8477) or texting “TIP” to CRIME (27463).
