Crime

"Saturday Night Live" writer Jimmy Fowlie announced a tragic development in the search for his missing sister ... saying that she's "no longer alive."

Christina Lynn Downer had been missing for months ... and Jimmy's been posting pleas on social media asking for help finding her.

But on Wednesday, he said the LAPD has told his family that the search for Christina is no longer a missing person's case ... but now a homicide investigation.

"Summer House" star West Wilson's cousin, Dakota Sweeney, was recently charged with murdering their grandmother ... 911 dispatch audio obtained by TMZ reveals the moments police were called to the scene.

In the audio, dispatchers are heard describing a call they received, in which the caller claims a possible subject shot his mother-in-law. As we previously reported, the victim was confirmed to be Sweeney's step-grandmother, Gayle R. Wilson.

We broke the story ... Carroll County law enforcement officials responded to reports of a shooting at a residence and found the 75-year-old dead on April 22.

The feds aren't allowing White House Correspondents' Dinner alleged gunman, Cole Allen, to speak with his attorney in private before his upcoming hearing ... at least according to Cole's public defender.

A.J. Kramer is representing Allen and he filed an emergency motion to visit Cole in jail to talk about the federal criminal case against him.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Kramer claims the Department of Corrections has refused Allen an opportunity to confidentially communicate with his lawyer.

Josh Duggar's going to be spending more time behind bars than he expected ... because his prison sentence just got extended a little longer.

Only days after going in front of a judge to appeal his conviction for possessing child sex abuse material, Josh had two months tacked on to his federal prison sentence.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Josh is now scheduled to be released from custody at FCI Seagoville in Texas on Feb. 2, 2033.

West Wilson's cousin has been arrested and charged with allegedly murdering their grandmother ... TMZ has learned.

Dakota Sweeney of Carrollton, Missouri was arrested on April 22 -- the night before West filmed the "Summer House" reunion. Carroll County law enforcement officials responded to reports of a shooting at a residence and found 75-year-old Gayle R. Wilson dead.

According to the probable cause statement, cops say a witness told them Sweeney was quietly sitting in the same room as Wilson for 30 minutes before he allegedly shot her with a handgun.

Nick Reiner allegedly butchered his parents back in December ... but when he appeared again in court Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the autopsies for Rob and Michele Reiner are not ready yet ... four and a half months after their murders.

The hearing was delayed and when Nick was finally brought into the courtroom, he looked thin in his yellow and blue jail jumpsuit.

Nick's public defender told the judge they were still waiting on discovery ... and the next hearing in the case was set for Sept. 15.

A Pennsylvania man killed his high school sweetheart, then took his own life in a shocking murder-suicide.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, 26-year-old Ryan Hosso shot his wife, Madeline Spatafore, inside their home in Butler, PA early Tuesday morning.

Cops say he called his parents and confessed to killing Spatafore. They say he also threatened to end his own life during the call.

Former "Love Is Blind: Argentina" star Santiago Martínez is headed to prison for 15 years after being sentenced for trying to kill his ex-wife, Emily Ceco -- whom he met and married on the show back in 2024.

According to Argentine outlet A24, Martínez got the sentence in March ... after Ceco pulled the plug on plans to remarry him in Feb. 2025, alleging he’d been physically abusing her and left her with a black eye.

He was ultimately convicted of attempted murder, repeated assault and unlawful detention -- while Ceco was granted a restraining order.

New photos show the alleged White House Correspondents' Dinner gunman snapping off a selfie minutes before the feds say he opened fire during the assassination attempt.

A memo submitted by the government Wednesday shows Cole Allen taking the snapshot in his Washington Hilton hotel room while armed to the teeth with weapons, including a knife, and several accessories ... and he took it less than 30 minutes ahead of allegedly charging into the lobby outside the WHCD.

The image shows Allen smirking while posing in the mirror, sporting a sheathed knife, a shoulder holster, pliers, wire cutters, and a small leather bag "consistent in appearance" with the ammo-filled bag he allegedly had on him when he was apprehended ... according to the doc.

Joseph Duggar has entered a not guilty plea to the charges he and his wife, Kendra, are facing in Arkansas.

Duggar's attorney entered the plea earlier this week in district court. Duggar has a court date set for August 10.

To be clear, this is in reference to the child endangerment and false imprisonment case against Joseph and Kendra Duggar, not the charges Duggar's facing connected to alleged sexual abuse of a minor in Florida. Kendra has also entered a not guilty plea.

Nick Reiner will head to court Wednesday morning for the preliminary hearing in his parents' double-murder case.

He'll appear before a judge at 8:30 AM at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles ... where prosecutors will present evidence to determine whether or not he'll go to trial.

As you know ... Nick has been charged with murdering his parents, Michele and Rob Reiner, back in December. They were found brutally stabbed to death in their Brentwood home.

The fallout from Charlie Kirk's shocking murder is still rippling outward months later ... and now TMZ has learned the state of Utah paid for therapy for someone traumatized by the deadly incident -- and may eventually want the accused killer to foot the bill.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, the Utah Office for Victims of Crime paid $260 for mental health therapy for a witness on the scene following the September 2025 shooting during a Turning Point USA campus public debate session at Utah Valley University that left Charlie dead.

The paperwork labels a person named Dana Anquoe as a victim tied to the case ... but she's not suing murder suspect Tyler Robinson directly.

Diddy is drawing a hard line against Jonathan Hay's explosive lawsuit ... filing a response in court that basically says the publicist's shocking allegations are flat-out false.

The music mogul just filed his official answer to Hay's amended complaint -- and he starts by "generally and specifically" denying every single allegation in the lawsuit. He also denies Hay was harmed at all and says Hay isn't entitled to a dime.

That's a major response to a lawsuit packed with jaw-dropping accusations.

An actor who appeared in the Oscar-winning film "Dances With Wolves" has been sentenced to 37 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls over a period of 2 decades.

A Las Vegas jury found Nathan Chasing Horse guilty of 13 of 21 charges he faced in January following an 11-day trial on Friday. He was originally arrested for the crimes by a SWAT team in 2023 and was booked in the Clark County Jail for child abuse or neglect, sex assault, sex assault against a child and sex trafficking of an adult.

Chasing Horse was accused of using his influence in the Native American community to take advantage of his victims. He was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault of a minor under 16, 1 count of open/gross lewdness, 1 count of sexual assault, and 1 count of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child, local outlet KTNV reported.

The accused terrorist who blew up Taylor Swift's 2024 plans to perform in Austria pleaded guilty to plotting to attack the venue where the superstar was to hold 3 concerts before they all got cancelled.

Citing Austrian news outlets, the AP reports the man copped to charges he devised the scheme to attack Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna in August 2024, as his trial kicked off Tuesday. He now faces up to 20 years behind bars.

The 21-year-old defendant, identified only as Beran A. due to Austrian privacy rules, was originally charged with a number of terrorist offenses, including membership in a terrorist organization. Though it's unclear if he pleaded guilty to any of those other offenses, his defense lawyer was previously quoted saying he would plead guilty to almost all the charges.

Joseph Duggar's wife Kendra is back in court over her own criminal case ... and she just scored a major legal win after getting a no-contact order lifted.

According to new court docs obtained by TMZ, Kendra's attorney, Travis W. Story, filed an entry of appearance on her behalf last week and entered a not guilty plea to charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment.

Her legal team also asked the court to dissolve a no-contact order that had been put in place on March 20 ... arguing the alleged victims wanted contact with Kendra restored, that she had complied with all conditions of the order, and that continued restrictions were preventing important third-party evaluations tied to the case.