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A former beauty queen from Mexico was found shot to death in her apartment ... and, according to local reports, authorities are looking into two of her family members.

Carolina Flores Gomez was found with a gunshot wound to her head Wednesday, April 15, according to Reporte Indigo.

Authorities told the outlet they believed Gomez was killed Wednesday.

Prosecutors trying "American Idol" alum Caleb Flynn for murder say they expect to put his daughters on the witness stand to ask them about the night their father allegedly shot their mother to death inside their home.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, prosecutors in Ohio say they anticipate multiple children testifying in Caleb's upcoming murder trial. We've also seen the witness list, and there are some redacted names.

As we previously reported, Caleb's two daughters were home the night their mother was murdered ... and prosecutors say Caleb pulled the trigger while his kids were in the other room.

D4vd is living a far different life than he was a week ago ... trading his $15,000 a month L.A. rental for a cold jail cell with strict rules.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the musician, charged with murdering Celeste Rivas, is being held in a segregated single cell. 

D4vd is escorted from his cell to the shower, which he is allowed every other day. The singer is only allowed to make phone calls on the days he is allowed a shower.

Sources tell TMZ that D4vd is allowed recreation time with fresh air, but only 3 hours per week. He has no contact with other inmates during rec time. 

David Wilcock, the American paranormal writer and YouTuber, has died ... TMZ has learned.

Authorities in Boulder County, Colorado say deputies were dispatched Monday after a 911 call came in around 10:44 AM for an unknown problem just outside the town of Nederland.

Authorities say the emergency communications specialist who took the 911 call believed the caller might have been in the middle of a mental health crisis.

Crocodile hunters may be all the rage Down Under ... but alligator hunters are born and bred in Florida -- with the state's cops being some of the best around.

The West Palm Beach Police Department shared a video Tuesday of an officer tangling with a reptile in a parking lot ... kicking off with the cop holding tightly onto the animal's snout -- before losing his grip.

Watch the clip ... faced with the sinister grin of his foe, the officer lifts up under its chin and tries again. When the alligator again slips away, he smacks it on the head a couple times to get it to look up ... before he and a partner are able to slap some tape around its jaws to muzzle it.

In the caption, the West Palm Beach Police Department joked officers need to be “ready for anything, even when it has scales and a serious attitude.”

The Houston Police Department is investigating an officer who is going viral after apparently using a series of racial slurs in a shocking social media video.

Officer Ashley Gonzalez has been relieved of duty pending the results of an investigation, according to Click2Houston.com ... with HPD saying they are looking into a video where a woman, who is reportedly Gonzalez, is telling a story about her wallet almost being snatched.

In the video, the woman says the guy who tried to take her wallet was Black ... and she called him the n-word after she says she caught him.

It's not looking good for Kash Patel -- because a federal judge just tossed out his defamation lawsuit against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi.

Figliuzzi -- the former assistant director for Counterintelligence at the FBI -- had quipped on the MS NOW show "Morning Joe" last year that the FBI director had been "visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor" of FBI HQ in D.C. ... but U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. wasn’t buying it as fact.

Instead, he ruled Tuesday the remark was "rhetorical hyperbole" ... meaning no reasonable person would take it literally.

A young PBS employee’s life was cut short in a brutal shooting -- and cops say the man behind it was someone she once loved and trusted.

Ivy Unruh -- a 25-year-old engineer for PBS Kansas and a U.S. Marine veteran -- was gunned down outside her Wichita apartment early Friday morning ... allegedly by her estranged husband.

Police say Unruh was shot in the upper body around 8 AM and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. She fought for days, but ultimately died Monday from her injuries.

29-year-old Joshua Orlando -- identified as her estranged husband -- called 911 to report the shooting himself, according to the Wichita Police Department. When officers arrived, they arrested him at the scene and recovered a firearm.

Kash Patel is lashing out at what he calls the "fake news mafia" after a report alleged he has an alcohol abuse problem.

The FBI director took some pointed shots at the media Tuesday after filing a $250 million defamation lawsuit on Monday following an unflattering article about him in The Atlantic magazine.

Patel denied reports he shows up to work drunk or sometimes doesn't show up at all ... claiming he is working more days than his predecessors.

Celeste Rivas' family was devastated and exhausted after D4vd's first court appearance in his murder case ... which is why they scrapped plans to address the media for the first time since he was charged with killing her.

The family was supposed to hold court Monday outside the Hall of Justice in Downtown Los Angeles and give a statement through their lawyer ... but it never happened ... and now we know why.

Patrick Steinfeld, who is representing the family, tells TMZ ... "The Rivas Hernandez family are very private individuals who were overwhelmed by the day’s events. They were concerned for their safety when they heard about the bomb threat. They were intimidated by the onslaught of reporters and the aggressiveness of some camera people."

The ball is in Jill Zarin's pickleball court ... because a lawsuit has just been filed against her and her boyfriend, Gary Brody.

Noah Springer is suing Zarin, Brody and GNG Enterprises ... with Springer claiming he invested $500K back in 2022 in exchange for a 25% share of a company called Pickle Pro Labs, LLC. He says he was promised a monthly salary of $5K while he and the company developed a machine called the Go-No-Go.

Around May 2024, Springer says he stopped getting paid ... and, around the same time, he claims Zarin and Brody founded GNG Enterprises -- a new company -- without his knowledge.

There have been several deaths and disappearances of scientists and government workers in the past few years ... and now the FBI is looking into whether or not these cases are linked, NBC News reports.

The House Oversight Committee announced Monday they're wondering if there's a possible connection between at least 10 people who have died or gone missing since 2023.

The Committee says two of them are linked to Los Alamos National Laboratory, and two of them are affiliated with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

And multiple disappearances involve the person in question leaving their phones behind.

These high-profile cases have even reached President Donald Trump, who told reporters Thursday it's "pretty serious stuff … hopefully a coincidence, or whatever you want to call it."

The president said we'll know in the next week and a half whether or not it's random.

But for now, we're breaking down each mysterious case.

Air Force Major General William "Neil" McCasland was reported missing by his wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, after he vanished from his home in Albuquerque, NM on February 27, 2026.

Neil spent his final two years in the USAF as a commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which many people believe contains evidence of aliens from a mysterious 1947 crash in Roswell, NM.

In the 911 call reporting his disappearance, Susan told the dispatcher she had "some indication that he planned not to be found."

Police say he left his phone and glasses at home, and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office reported a .38-caliber revolver was missing ... along with his hiking boots and wallet.

Steven Garcia was reported missing on August 28, 2025, last seen in Albuquerque, NM, wearing a green camo shirt and glasses.

According to a flier posted to the ALERT NEW MEXICO Facebook Group, he left his home with a handgun and "may be a danger to himself."

The Hill reports Steven was a property custodian with top security clearance at Kansas City National Security Campus, which manufactures "80 percent of non-nuclear components that go into the nuclear stockpile," according to the KCNSC website.

Monica Jacinto Reza went missing on June 22, 2025 while hiking in the Mount Waterman area of the San Gabriel Mountains in California, according to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station.

According to SpaceNews, Monica is a scientist who, in the '90s, helped invent a "nickel-based superalloy" called Mondaloy to be used in rocket engines. The article notes she was working at Aerojet Rocketdyne at the time.

The press release from the House Oversight Committee on Monday said she worked as the director of NASA Lab's Materials Processing Group, and had previously worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The New York Post reports the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department searched for months, but never found her.

Melissa Casias went missing on June 26, 2025. Her husband, Mark, told Dateline she dropped him off at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where they both worked.

Their daughter, Sierra, told "Dateline" she heard her mom return home a little after 7:30 AM. When Sierra asked what she was doing back, Melissa said she had forgotten her badge, but ultimately told her daughter she was going to "either work from home or call out for the day."

Sierra then went to work at a cafe -- noting her mom brought her a sandwich a little before 1 PM ... and police confirmed they spoke then. She said her mom's behavior "wasn't out of the ordinary" ... but that was the last time she saw her.

Meanwhile, Mark told "Dateline" he got a concerned call from Melissa's boss ... who said she wasn't at work. When he was reportedly unable to reach his wife, Mark asked Sierra to contact her ... since they'd spoken recently.

Sierra says she texted her mom and the message was delivered, telling "Dateline" ... "I assumed that she was just gonna call him."

New Mexico State Police PIO Sergeant Ricardo Breceda told "Dateline" Melissa was last seen around 2:18 PM, when an acquaintance saw her walking along the NM 518 state highway ... which was also captured on nearby surveillance cameras.

According to "Dateline" ... Mark started frantically calling Sierra around that time because he still hadn't heard from Melissa. Sierra told "Dateline" when she texted her mom again, the message didn't deliver.

When she got home later that afternoon, Sierra told "Dateline" Melissa had left her keys and work phone on the kitchen table.

According to her LinkedIn ... Melissa had been an administrative assistant at LANL since March 2023. The lab "addresses national security challenges by advancing breakthroughs in science and technology" ... according to its website.

Mark told "Dateline" he "can’t grasp" Melissa's disappearance, saying ... "I don’t know. I can’t figure it out."

Anthony Chavez also worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico -- multiple outlets report -- and vanished just a month before Casias did.

According to the Los Alamos County Police Department, Anthony was reported missing on May 8, 2025.

In a Facebook post ... the LACPD said he is "not believed to be endangered," but his friends and family say his disappearance is "out of character."

It's unclear what Anthony's job at LANL entailed.

Frank Maiwald -- a scientist with experience in space research -- died on July 4, 2024 at the age of 61, according to his obituary.

The memorial says Frank spent years at JPL managing the development and delivery of several NASA instruments -- the SBG-VSWIR instrument and instruments for the AMR-C program.

According to the obit ... Frank worked on a bunch of other projects and has won multiple JPL and NASA awards.

There's no mention of his cause of death.

MIT professor Nuno Loureiro was shot in his home in Brookline, MA on December 17, 2025, and died at the hospital the following morning ... according to CBS News.

In an obituary, MIT confirmed Nuno was a professor of nuclear science and engineering, as well as a professor of physics.

MIT says Nuno was a "lauded theoretical physicist and fusion scientist," and his research "addressed complex problems lurking at the center of fusion vacuum chambers and at the edges of the universe."

According to CBS News, the suspect in Nuno's murder was identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente ... who had opened fire at Brown University just days before.

CBS News reports Valente was found dead in New Hampshire later that week ... and had died after shooting himself in the head, according to his autopsy.

No word on what his motive was.

Scientist Carl Grillmair was shot and killed on February 16, 2026 on his porch in Llano, CA in Antelope Valley ... according to Pasadena Now.

In an obituary, CalTech confirmed Carl was an astronomer for their Infrared Processing & Analysis Center. According to its website ... IPAC works closely with NASA and JPL to "advance exploration of our Universe."

Pasadena Now reports 29-year-old Freddy Snyder was charged with the murder and is set to be arraigned April 29.

No motive has been published.

The body of Jason Thomas -- who worked for the Novartis biomedical research institute -- was found in a Massachusetts lake on March 17, 2026 ... three months after he had been reported missing.

According to a news release from the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office, Jason's wife reported him missing to Wakefield Police on December 13, 2025 ... because he didn't come home the night before.

Jason was a senior investigator with Novartis, according to his Linkedin profile.

The D.A.'s office says in the release that the medical examiner hasn't determined cause of death yet ... but authorities are ruling out foul play.

Scientist Michael David Hicks died on July 30, 2023 ... according to an obituary written by the American Astronomical Society.

The memorial says Michael was 59 years old and living in Sunland, in L.A., at the time. It says Michael worked as a research scientist with JPL, where he worked on projects about asteroids and deep space.

Anna Kepner’s accused killer isn’t showing up in court -- but he is showing his legal strategy ... pleading not guilty while staying out of sight.

The 16-year-old stepbrother -- identified in court docs only as T.H. -- waived his personal appearance at the arraignment Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea. He was originally expected to be in a Miami courtroom Wednesday morning.

The teen, who is now being prosecuted as an adult, is facing first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse charges tied to the death of his 18-year-old stepsister aboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship back in November 2025.