Bristol County

For nearly a decade, a murder in New Bedford could have been solved, prosecutors say. Hiding in plain sight was a rape kit that hadn’t been tested 14 years prior. Through a coincidental and meandering turn of events, the woman’s murder would help uncover an accumulation of rape kits that prosecutors say has led to criminals remaining free for...

The Cold Case Unit on the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office has announced a new missing person project to dig deeper into investigating cases of people who vanished in the county over the past five decades. The new initiative, which was announced Wednesday, is being run in conjunction with the Cold Case Unit’s ongoing push to identify previously unidentified...

A Massachusetts father was critically injured in a rollover crash Saturday afternoon in Swansea, while his son suffered potential minor injuries, state police said. Troopers responded shortly before 2:30 p.m. to Route 195 eastbound, near mile marker 7.4, where they found a Mercedes-Benz GLS down an embankment, on the wrong side of the guardrail. According to state police, the sport…

The father is in critical condition, police said

Two K-9s with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office are now trained to help sniff out COVID-19.

Massachusetts’ attorney general and a state Senate committee will investigate an incident at the Bristol County House of Correction that took place over the weekend, while Gov. Charlie Baker cautioned against “drawing conclusions” about the violent altercation. Attorney General Maura Healey’s office has asked the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office for surveillance footage of the incident, which Sheriff Thomas Hodgson...

Congressman Joe Kennedy III called for an investigation into what happened in light of reports that detainees at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigration Detention Center were assaulted by Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson and some of his officers.

A group of about 10 federal immigration detainees who refused to be tested for the virus that causes COVID-19 caused extensive damage to the center in Dartmouth where they are being held, the sheriff’s office said in a Friday night news release. But Congressman Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., on Saturday morning called for an investigation into what happened in light of…

The Animal Rescue League of Boston is urging people to recognize the signs of hoarding after they rescued nearly 80 cats and kittens from squalid conditions at two homes in Massachusetts. Fifty kittens and cats were removed from a South Shore home after the animals were found living in squalor in a small apartment, according to the organization. They were...

Two Massachusetts priests have been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement from Fall River’s Catholic Diocese. Father Richard E. Degagne, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton, and Father Daniel W. Lacroix, co-pastor of St. Joseph-St. Therese, St. Mary, and Our Lady of Fatima Parishes in New Bedford, have been placed on leave because of alleged misconduct that...

A former Massachusetts man who fled the Bay State 16 years ago and was arrested in Maine this summer was ordered held without bail as a flight risk during his arraignment on Friday. Ivan Keith, 61, was arraigned in Fall River after he was indicted on three counts of aggravated rape in connection to brutal sexual assaults that date back...

A fourth person this year has died from EEE in Massachusetts, health officials announced Wednesday. A man in his 70s from Worcester County died from the mosquito-borne illness, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The victim was the 11th human case that has been diagnosed in the state during this year’s outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness.

A third person this year has died from EEE in Massachusetts, health officials confirmed Monday. An unidentified hospital reported the death to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The victim was one of 10 human cases that has been diagnosed in the state during this year’s outbreak of the mosquito-borne illness.

Health authorities in Maine say they have confirmed the presence of a potentially deadly virus in mosquitoes in the southern part of the state. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday mosquitoes in York County tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis. A state laboratory found the virus in a single mosquito pool collected Sept. 6 in the...

Two more people have the potentially deadly eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, virus in Rhode Island, state officials said Tuesday. One is a child. There are now three human cases of EEE this year, amid an outbreak that has spanned New England. Two people have died — one in Rhode Island, one in Massachusetts — among 12 human cases reported...

The suspect in four decades-old rape cases faced a judge in Dedham to face charges in one of the cases.

The man accused of assuming a new identity in Maine after raping at least four women in Massachusetts during the 1990s returned to court Tuesday — justice delayed, but not denied. Ivan Keith, a 61-year-old formerly of Bridgewater, was charged with rape, kidnapping and assault in Norfolk Superior Court stemming from a 1996 sexual assault inside Quincy High School.

The southern Bristol County resident is over the age of 50, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in a statement.

A third person has a confirmed case of eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, in Massachusetts this summer, health authorities said Friday. A man over 60 years old in northern Franklin County has the rare but potentially deadly virus, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in a statement. The risk level is now critical in two Franklin County communities.