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Turkish content creator Ayşegül Eraslan was being blackmailed over sexually explicit photos and was being threatened before she was found dead in her home ... at least according to her family.

Eraslan's family attorney, Hasan Yilmaz, claims the fam has evidence backing their blackmail allegations, which he says he's turned over to authorities ... local outlet Sözcü reports.

The fashion influencer was found dead inside her home in Turkey back in March ... a couple days after getting back from a trip to Egypt.

Investigators looking into the 1996 disappearance of California college student Kristin Smart say they've found evidence of human remains on a property linked to her convicted killer.

This is a potentially huge deal ... because Kristin's body was never found.

She was declared legally dead in 2002, and Paul Flores -- who went to school with her and was the last person to see her alive -- was found guilty of first-degree murder 20 years later.

Investigators have been running soil tests on the home of Paul's mom, Susan Flores, for the past couple days ... and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson told reporters they found compounds related to a human, decomposing body.

Jeffrey Epstein's brother says the disgraced financier didn't write the suicide note his former cellmate claims he did ... calling it a forgery.

Mark Epstein told Business Insider he's seen the note which a judge unsealed this week, and he's not buying it ... claiming it would be the "easiest f***ing thing" for a forger to whip up a fake one.

The note -- which his former cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione claims he found in a graphic novel after a July 2019 suicide attempt by Epstein, about a month before he died -- includes a line which reads, "Watcha want me to do -- Bust out cryin!!" seemingly a reference to "The Little Rascals." Jeffrey put a similar remark in emails he sent Mark and others.

Erika Kirk is taking a walk down memory lane with her late husband, Charlie ... posting an emotional tribute to their love story on their fifth wedding anniversary.

Erika shared a deeply personal video montage Friday on X filled with family photos and intimate moments with Charlie ... pairing it with an audio track about their journey and the family they built together.

Take a look ... the tribute opens with a woman saying, "I want to show you some pictures of Mommy and Daddy and I want to tell you a story" ... before a child’s voice chimes in with a narration about "Mama and Dada" loving each other and wanting to build a family together.

Jeremy Corbell is encouraged and optimistic about the first batch of alien and UFO files being released by the government ... he says the transparency here is a long time coming.

The UFO expert and filmmaker joined us Friday on "TMZ Live," and we asked him about the Pentagon releasing photos, videos and files on aliens and unidentified aerial phenomena.

Jeremy tells us the White House has told him more files will be released as part of a "slow burn" ... and he hopes that means they are easing people into the information. On the other hand, he says a slow rollout could mean President Trump didn't get the good stuff.

The hantavirus scare is giving some people COVID flashbacks ... but this virus apparently doesn't have the same bite.

Dr. Ashish Jha -- the former White House COVID response coordinator -- stopped by "TMZ Live" to tell everyone to exhale a little over the deadly outbreak aboard the MV Hondius ... because while he's worried about people exposed on that ship, he tells us this thing is NOT shaping up to be another COVID-style nightmare.

Check it out ... he assures us, "This is not gonna be a pandemic. That's not how this virus is going to behave."

Ashlee Jenae’s fiancé Joe McCann has been given back his passport and will be returning home to the U.S. following Ashlee's shocking death earlier last month ... TMZ has learned.

Joe McCann's lawyer, Edward Andrew Paltzik, tells TMZ ... authorities in Tanzania returned Joe's American passport to him yesterday after he remained in Tanzania for nearly a month while cooperating with authorities.

Edward clarifies this was not a newly-issued passport from the State Department and explains it was Joe's actual passport that he voluntarily handed over to authorities the day after Ashlee's death. Tanzanian authorities chose to give it back to Joe on Thursday.

The Department of War has released the first round of files connected to unidentified aerial phenomena ... and conspiracy theorists are sure to have a field day with the docs.

As you know ... months ago, just after former President Barack Obama said on a podcast that aliens were real, President Donald Trump promised the American public documents regarding "alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs)."

The DoW followed the commander-in-chief's order Friday ... releasing some of the many documents on the subject -- with everything from photos taken on space missions to sketches from alleged eyewitness accounts.

Burning outrage over Congressional redistricting in Tennessee is exploding in that state's capital ... where state Rep. Justin Jones set fire to Confederate flag.

Justin was protesting Tennessee Republicans approving a new Congressional map Thursday -- splitting up a majority-Black district in Memphis -- when he joined a crowd marching and chanting through the Capitol, held up a printout of the rebel flag ... and lit it up.

While still holding the burned flag -- which had "We will not go back" written along the edge -- Justin told The Tennessean, "They're taking us backwards to this type of environment where Black folks are not treated with equal representation, where we're pre-1965."

Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrival at a Texas prison camp apparently sparked major backlash behind bars -- with inmates now claiming they were screamed at and punished just for talking about her.

Former inmate Julie Howell told CNN she was abruptly transferred from the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan to a higher-security detention center in Houston after sharing her thoughts with a reporter on Maxwell being housed at the minimum-security facility meant for non-violent offenders.

According to Howell, she even checked the prison handbook beforehand to make sure speaking to the press wasn’t against the rules, but says prison officials still came down hard on her after the story blew up.

President Donald Trump went full HGTV mode Thursday ... unloading on an ABC reporter for asking why he’s focused on D.C. renovations instead of the Iran war.

The fiery exchange went down near the Lincoln Memorial, where the POTUS was showing off plans for his Washington makeover ... while the shaky Iran ceasefire and soaring gas prices continue dominating headlines.

That's when ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott asked why he's so focused on beautification projects during the conflict ... and Trump had quite the fiery response.

Absolute tragedy in Mexico ... a massive fire ripped through a packed fairground, killing at least 5 people.

Video from the horrifying scene Thursday night shows huge flames tearing through the Parque Tabasco shopping mall fair in Villahermosa in Southern Mexico. Terrified crowds of fairgoers scrambled to escape flames and thick smoke billowing into the sky.

Officials say they finally got the blaze under control by Friday morning, according to Tabasco’s Civil Protection agency.

Tabasco Governor Javier May Rodríguez confirmed investigations are now underway to determine what sparked the deadly inferno ... and he also announced the state will provide economic recovery for impacted businesses.

A Florida high school teacher has been arrested after he was allegedly found carrying cocaine and fentanyl in his backpack.

The Collier County Sheriff's Office booked 44-year-old Lely High School teacher Christopher D. Toukonen into the Collier County Jail Thursday after detectives interviewed him and determined he was in possession of a "mixture" of narcotics. He is charged with felony counts of possessing the drugs and is also facing a charge of possession of narcotic paraphernalia.

Police say Toukonen was caught after school administrators were notified he might be using narcotics "while he was alone in the classroom with no students present." Admins searched his backpack and located the suspected illegal narcotics ... and swiftly contacted the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

The man accused of shooting up the White House Correspondents' Dinner wants some top government lawyers cut from the case ... arguing there's a conflict of interest because they were at the event and among those allegedly targeted.

Attorneys for Cole Allen submitted a motion Thursday night asking the judge to disqualify U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche because they're "purported victims and witnesses in this case." The motion cites Justice Department rules advising employees to recuse themselves from criminal investigations where they may have a conflict of interest.

His legal team further argues Pirro and Blanche have a personal relationship with President Donald Trump and have made numerous media appearances -- such as a CNN interview by Pirro -- and social media posts about being at the shooting, exemplifying a personal interest.

A nude painting from Jeffrey Epstein's New York City townhouse popped up on eBay ... and it sounds like the seller wanted big bucks.

The online auction house had a listing up for "Jeffrey Epstein's Desk Art" ... a lewd depiction of a woman that Epstein hung over his desk ... according to the New York Post.

The eBay listing, which has since been scrubbed, sought $25,000.

Apparently, the seller bought the art from a New Jersey auction and tried to flip it. Epstein's estate sold off a lot of his belongings.

Kyle Rittenhouse -- who shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin 6 years ago -- wound up in the hospital this week ... after he says he was bitten by a spider.

He posted some pics from a hospital bed on Wednesday, writing ... "The communists couldn't take me out and i'll be damned if I let a brown recluse take me out."

The selfie shows him hooked up to some monitors, while the other image shows circles drawn around a red splotch on his leg ... where he was allegedly bitten. Brown recluse spiders are no joke -- the bite can cause serious side effects ... sometimes taking months to heal.