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Wednesday June 10, 2026
SMITH COUNTY — A Tyler man was arrested late Wednesday night for possession of child pornography. According to our news partner KETK, Matthew Kyle Landua, 25, was taken into custody by Smith County Sheriff’s deputies after 11 p.m Wednesday night. He was booked into the Smith County Jail with bond set at $750,000.
BEN WHEELER — An abandoned church in Ben Wheeler was destroyed after a late-night fire on Monday. According to our news partner KETK, the church was known as Bethlehem CME and was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived just after 10:30 p.m. There were no walls left standing and the building was nearly consumed. Witnesses said that the church had not been in use for some time. There were no utilities connected to the structure. There were no signs that the building was targeted because it was a church or due to its religious affiliation.
HARRISON COUNTY – After a 5-year-old boy died from injuries sustained during a suspected child abuse case in East Texas, the Harrison County District Attorney’s Office may upgrade charges to murder punishable by the death penalty or life in prison. According to our news partner KETK, when deputies arrived at the house of Danielle Faulkner and her boyfriend Larry Prudhomme, investigators were told the child fell off their porch causing him to have a seizure and trouble breathing. While treating the boy, EMS noticed he was extremely bruised all over his body and told deputies that they didn’t feel the amount of bruising was consistent with falling off the porch. Read the rest of this entry »
GILMER — Gilmer City Council voted to declare the East Texas town a Safe Haven for the Unborn on Tuesday, September 24. In a 4-1 vote, the city passed the ordinance, which bans abortions at all stages within city limits and prohibits abortion businesses from setting up shop within the town. Gilmer is now the sixth city in Texas to pass such an ordinance, following in the footsteps of Waskom in June and Omaha and Naples earlier this month. With a population of nearly 5,000, Gilmer became the largest Texas jurisdiction to take such a stand.
HENDERSON COUNTY — A vehicle theft report lands an East Texas man in jail. According to the Henderson County Sheriff, a deputy was responding to a report of of someone possibly stripping a stolen vehicle in the Payne Springs area Sunday. The deputy was able to confirm that the vehicle had been reported stolen earlier that day. Joshua Rhodes, of Gun Barrel City, was arrest for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He was booked into the Henderson County Jail. The vehicle was released back to the owner.
LUFKIN — A Lufkin Police officer was assaulted while working security at movie theater late Saturday night. According to our news partner KETK, Det. Ron Stubblefield was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for a broken arm following the incident, which occurred around 11:35 p.m. at 109 Miles Way. Theater staff requested that Stubblefield ask a group of roughly 20 people to leave the movie Downton Abbey because they were recording the movie and being disruptive. When Stubblefield approached the group, the suspect – described as a younger black male, 5’9-5’10, thin build, wearing a white hoodie – aggressively bumped into the officer. A confrontation then ensued in which Stubblefield was assaulted and forced to the ground, breaking his arm near the elbow. Read the rest of this entry »
LONGVIEW — The Longview Fire Department Tuesday activated six members of the water rescue team to be deployed with the Texas Task Force. The deployment is in response to the tropical storms expected to make landfall in Texas this week. The six member team will travel to College Station for staging and from there they will respond where needed.
TYLER — A Tyler man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. According to our news partner KETK, Robert Robinson, 63, was booked into the Smith County Jail at 11:30 p.m. Monday night after an arrest warrant was signed by 114th District Judge Christi Kennedy. Robinson is being held on a $500,000 cash bond.
KILGORE — The city of Kilgore experienced a major power outage on Friday morning. According to the Kilgore police department facebook page, “a large critter” got into a switching station off of Longview street. Over 1,900 customers were without power, including Kilgore ISD who posted on social media that they had been impacted by the outage. Swepco had electricity restored before noon.
TYLER — A Tyler man has been apprehended following a brief chase with Tyler Police Thursday morning. According to our news partner KETK, it started around 7:00 when a woman called police to report that her ex-boyfriend, Joshua Allen Cowart, was following her. She wrecked her vehicle a short time after the call near Copeland and Loop 323. The man fled the scene in his vehicle and ended up in the Hobby Lobby parking lot on Loop 323. That’s where police found him armed with a knife. Cowart refused to comply with the officer’s instructions and was shot twice with a bean bag gun. The gun was ineffective and he run away again. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER — A teen from Tyler is fighting for her life in a Dallas hospital and doctors believe vaping may be the cause. It began two weeks ago when Whitney Livingston, 17, started to complain about an upper respiratory problem. Her doctor told her she had bronchitis and early stages pneumonia. But within 24 hours her lungs had filled with fluid and she had trouble breathing. She was admitted to the ICU and transferred to Children’s Health in Dallas. Her mother, Jennifer Audas, says her daughter had been vaping for just 18 months and she thought it was a safer alternative to smoking.
SMITH COUNTY — The mother of a toddler that drowned in Chapel Hill has been arrested. After an extensive investigation, investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Tiffany Snyder for injury to a child. On August 18, Smith County Deputies responded to a home on County Road 210 in the Chapel Hill area regarding a missing child. After an exhaustive search, the body of Madison Williams, 3, was located in a pond on the property. Snyder was arrested September 9 and booked into the Smith County Jail. Her bond was set at $200,000.
TYLER – TxDOT is planning to conduct the following construction and maintenance work throughout the district during the Week of Sept. 9, 2019. Schedules are subject to change due to weather conditions, equipment failure or other unforeseen issues. Slow down and pay attention when traveling through work zones. In Tyler, the contractor is preparing for a traffic shift for major construction to get underway soon on the FM 2493/Old Jacksonville Highway project between Gresham and Flint. Traffic will be moved to the east side of the roadway where detours have been installed on both ends of the project. Motorists can expect minimal impacts to traffic as trucks deliver construction materials. Go to https://www.txdot.gov/ for the complete rundown.
LONGVIEW — A woman known in East Texas as an unidentified person formerly called “Lavender Doe†officially has her name back after more than a decade. According to our news partner KETK, Dana Lynn Dodd was identified by DNA. This weekend, her family flew from Florida to visit her grave site and give it a new update. She now has a new headstone. The family wanted to thank East Texas, the DNA Doe Project and local law enforcement for helping them get closure. September 6th would have been Dodd’s 34th birthday. Read the rest of this entry »
RUSK COUNTY — A Rusk County Sheriff’s deputy is facing a DWI charge after being arrested in Henderson on Thursday. According to our news partner KETK, Deputy Jimmie Candie was off-duty when he was arrested for DWI Thursday. Candie was arraigned Friday and bonded out of jail a short time later. Deputy Candie was suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation through Rusk County Sheriff’s Office. Candie resigned from the Sheriff’s Office hours later.