Missing Toddlers Recovered in Mexico After Harrowing Week with 'Severely Depressed' Father | Crime Alert 05.29.26

Two young boys recovered in Mexico after their father abandoned Utah home and violated custody agreement. Family grieving Chicago Honor Roll soccer captain shot dead on daily commute to school. Illinois three-decade cold-case finally solved, Randy Gail Sperino's killer behind bars. Sydney Silvagni reports. 

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Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now, I'm Sidney Silvanni.

Speaker 1: A terrifying search for two missing toddlers has culminated in

Speaker 1: a dramatic rescue across international borders, exposing a mother's worst nightmare.

Speaker 1: Lizzie Tomage reported her two young sons, twenty two month

Speaker 1: old will and ten month old Wesley Richmond, missing from

Speaker 1: their father's home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, on Saturday, May

Speaker 1: twenty third. The children were last seen a full week

Speaker 1: earlier in Shelton, Washington, where their father had picked them

Speaker 1: up from Tomach's residence. The Utah Department of Public Safety

Speaker 1: issued a critical Amber alert stating that the two boys

Speaker 1: were in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death,

Speaker 1: officially naming their forty six year old father, Dame Stephen Richmond,

Speaker 1: as the primary suspect. Tomag took to TikTok alongside her

Speaker 1: family attorney, begging the public for any information that could

Speaker 1: lead to the recovery of her sons. The panic began

Speaker 1: Friday morning when Richmond completely failed to appear for a

Speaker 1: scheduled legal deposition.

Speaker 2: Of this week.

Speaker 3: For a deposition on May twenty second, minutes before the

Speaker 3: deposition was to start. We learned that Day had fired

Speaker 3: as attorney and would not be attite of the deposition.

Speaker 3: I immediately contacted him via calling his phone and texting.

Speaker 3: He did not respond.

Speaker 1: Tomag immediately requested a welfare check at Richmond's residence. The

Speaker 1: home was entirely empty, stripped of personal belongings, and abandoned.

Speaker 2: We learned that the house was vacant and there were

Speaker 2: things being moved out. There was no car, and Day

Speaker 2: and the boys were not home when we learned this,

Speaker 2: when we knew something was wrong.

Speaker 1: As investigators scrambled to trace Richmond's movements, a deceptive text

Speaker 1: message popped up on Tomach's phone. Richmond claimed that he

Speaker 1: had merely taken the two young boys on a spontaneous

Speaker 1: camping trip. However, law enforcement quickly unmasked the line. Cellular

Speaker 1: tracking revealed that Richmond sent the text while positioned near

Speaker 1: San Diego, California, and he had already crossed the United

Speaker 1: States Mexico border. For days, the family endured agonizing uncertainty

Speaker 1: until a major breakthrough. On Tuesday, Saratoga Springs police announced

Speaker 1: that the children had been located safe in the northwestern

Speaker 1: Mexican city of San Felipe. Following their rescue, family member

Speaker 1: Jenny hirsch Toomitch expressed the family's profound relief on Facebook,

Speaker 1: writing that she had never experienced true terror like this,

Speaker 1: before noting that the thought of never seeing the little

Speaker 1: guys again was more than they could process. While the

Speaker 1: children are being safely brought home, details about the suspect's

Speaker 1: unraveling life have emerged. Authorities revealed that Richmond was severely depressed,

Speaker 1: had abruptly quit his job, sold or gave away his

Speaker 1: worldly possessions, and entirely abandoned his home before fleeing across

Speaker 1: the border. Richmond has since been arrested and faces two

Speaker 1: counts of custodial interference. More crime and justice news. After

Speaker 1: this tragic daylight violence in Chicago has claimed the life

Speaker 1: of a promising young student, leaving a community of reeling

Speaker 1: in a f family broke in. Seventeen year old Pedro

Speaker 1: Ramirez was an honor rolled junior at Tilden High School.

Speaker 1: Loved by his peers, Pedro served as the captain of

Speaker 1: his school soccer team and was a dedicated volleyball player.

Speaker 1: On Tuesday morning, around seven forty am, Pedro was walking

Speaker 1: toward a local bus stop to make his usual commute

Speaker 1: to school in the back of the yard's neighborhood. He

Speaker 1: never made it. An unknown assailant open fire, striking the

Speaker 1: teenager multiple times. Pedro was rushed to Comber Children's Hospital,

Speaker 1: where he was tragically pronounced dead. Speaking to reporters from

Speaker 1: ABC seven, his greeting mother, Aloisa Garcia, described the crushing

Speaker 1: shock of losing her son so suddenly.

Speaker 3: Our lives changed completely and this is like a dream.

Speaker 1: Her partner, as Usina Velasquez, spoke to ABC seven in Spanish,

Speaker 1: pleading for an end to the rampant violence plaguing the

Speaker 1: city streets during morning hours when children are simply trying

Speaker 1: to walk to school. According to the Chicago Police Department,

Speaker 1: an unknown offender exited a dark colored suv and unleashed

Speaker 1: a of gunfire that targeted multiple people. Two bystanders, men

Speaker 1: aged fifty five and sixty one, who were sitting innocently

Speaker 1: inside a nearby vehicle, were also struck by the bullets.

Speaker 1: Both were rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. While

Speaker 1: a motive remains unclear, Chicago Police confirmed that a person

Speaker 1: of interest has been taken into custody. The losses devastated

Speaker 1: Pedro's classmates, including his best friend Mario Rosalis, who shared

Speaker 1: a heart wrenching memory with ABC seven about Pedro's unyielding

Speaker 1: commitment to his education.

Speaker 2: He always said, I will never miss school unless I'm

Speaker 2: very sick, or unless I'm dying. He actually died, so

Speaker 2: it really hurts my heart about those words that you said.

Speaker 1: Now online, a GoFundMe page established to cover funeral expenses

Speaker 1: describes Pedrito as a kind, cheerful, and helpful young man

Speaker 1: who left an indelible impression on everyone he met, adding

Speaker 1: that no mother should ever have to endure such profound pain. Finally,

Speaker 1: a decade's old mystery in southern Illinois has been solved,

Speaker 1: proving that time is no escape for a killer. For

Speaker 1: over thirty years, the brutal murder of thirty four year

Speaker 1: old Randy Gale Sporino remained a haunting cold case. On

Speaker 1: November ninth, nineteen ninety three, Spirino's body was discovered abandoned

Speaker 1: in a rural field in unincorporated Granite City, having suffered

Speaker 1: massive blunt force trauma to the head. Generations of law

Speaker 1: enforcement officers chased down thousands of leads, re interviewed witnesses

Speaker 1: and repeatedly analyzed DNA evidence, yet the killer managed to

Speaker 1: evade justice until now. On Tuesday, Madison County State's Attorney

Speaker 1: Tom Hayne announced that first degree murder charges have been

Speaker 1: filed against seventy year old Albert Buddy Ziegler of Caseyville, Haine.

Speaker 1: Emphasized that a monumental breakthrough in forensic genealogical DNA evidence

Speaker 1: broke the case wide open. The scientific breakthrough led to

Speaker 1: a stunning confession. Ziegler admitted to investigators that he picked

Speaker 1: Spirino up in Granite City, brought her back to his residence,

Speaker 1: and brutally beat her to death using a metal baseball

Speaker 1: bat or a steel pipe before dumping her body in

Speaker 1: the rural field. Prosecutors are aggressively fid to keep Ziegler

Speaker 1: detained without bond pending his trial. Ziegler's public defender argued

Speaker 1: that because he is seventy years old in recovering from

Speaker 1: a recent heart attack, he is far too ill for

Speaker 1: a prison environment. However, Judge James Hackett determined that the

Speaker 1: sheer gravity of the murder allegations outweighs his medical condition,

Speaker 1: ordering that Ziegler remains securely in custody. For the latest

Speaker 1: crime and justice breaking news, be sure to tune in

Speaker 1: tomorrow on your favorite podcast app with this crime alert.

Speaker 1: I'm Sidney Silvani.