Body found in Santa Fe National Forest identified as 1950s grappler

Human remains discovered more than two decades ago in the Santa Fe National Forest have been identified as Keeble Wofford Sr., known in the 1950s as actor and wrestler Kimo Mahi, who had been missing since 1992.
The case is the fourth in New Mexico in which state officials have been able to positively identify someone using the DNA testing technology of forensic genealogy company Othram, the firm claims.
Wofford's bones were found by hikers in the forest in Sandoval County in 2001 and reported to the Sandoval County Sheriff's Office, Othram said in a news release. Deputies entered the case into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System as Sandoval County John Doe, whose identity remained a mystery.
Kimo Mahi.jpg
Kimo Mahi
In 2021, the sheriff's office and the state Office of the Medical Investigator sent the remains to the lab of Texas-based Othram, which used a process it calls "forensic-grade genome sequencing" to build a DNA profile from the remains, the news release states.
Othram compared a DNA sample from Wofford's daughter to the unidentified remains and was able to positively identify them, the company said.
A death certificate was then drafted for Wofford, and his cremated remains were returned to his daughter.
Investigators believe Wofford had been traveling from Pueblo, Colo., to Albuquerque in September 1992 for a business meeting and "was never heard from again," the news release says.
Wofford competed as wrestler Kimo Mahi in the 1950s and '60s. He was described in an El Paso Herald-Post column as a "plucky Hawaiian grappler."
He also appeared in at least one film — Twilight for the Gods, starring Rock Hudson and Cyd Charisse — and several television shows, according to IMDb, including the series Hawaiian Eye and Sea Hunt.
Othram's technology has been used in the past to identify the remains of two women found in and near Albuquerque as well as a suspect in a 1987 rape and murder case in Carlsbad, according to the company.
"People should know that it doesn't matter how old a case is, or whether it was hopeless in the past, there is technology here today that is able to bring answers to families like in this case," Kristen Mittelman, the company's chief development officer, said in a statement. "This was a well-known man who just disappeared more than 20 years ago and now he has his name again."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

37 minutes ago

• Yahoo

'Killer bees' keep spreading (and killing) across the US

Africanized honey bees, often called "killer bees," are now found in 13 states and are slowly spreading northward, attacking people, livestock and pets along the way. In the last three months alone, a man mowing his property died after a bee attack, three people were taken to the hospital after tree trimmers disturbed a colony, hikers ran a mile to get away from an agitated hive and a woman and three horses were swarmed by bees spooked by a lawn mower. The horses later died from "thousands" of stings, their owner said. Scientists say the bees' temperament is a defense mechanism to ward off predators – and note that because honey bees die after stinging, they are sacrificing themselves to protect their colony. But to unsuspecting humans, killer bees sure seem aggressive, spiteful and terrifying. They've been known to follow their victims for up to a mile – even following cars and trucks – and can sting through regular beekeeping gear. In the attack on the Texas horses, owner Baillie Hillman said, "they didn't give up." As parts of the west become warmer and drier, it's only going to get worse as the bees' preferred climate moves northward. There's no national database of deaths related to bee stings, but a 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that on average 72 people died a year from hornet, wasp and bee stings. "In Texas, every year there's at least four big (Africanized bee) attacks that make the news," said Juliana Rangel, a professor of apiculture (beekeeping) at Texas A&M University, where they're widespread in the wild. "Killer bees" first made headlines in the 1990s when they began to appear in the United States, spawning alarming news stories and a surge of horror movies such as Deadly Invasion, The Swarm, The Savage Bees. Today, people in the South and the Southwest are learning to live with them, but the danger remains, especially when the highly defensive bees first appear in an area or when people accidentally run into a colony. Africanized honey bees don't survive in areas with cold winters and don't like high levels of rain, making for natural cutoffs in areas where temperatures fall, Rangel said. However in the coming decades, climate change means the bees could potentially move into southeastern Oregon, the western Great Plains and the southern Appalachian mountains, according to research published in 2014. "By 2050 or so, with increasing temperatures, we're going to see northward movement, mostly in the Western half of the country," said Rangel. Africanized honey bees don't have more, or more potent, venom than Western honey bees. "The stings feel the same," said Rangel. What differentiates them is the numbers a colony sends out to attack. While each bee can only sting once before it dies, a colony of Africanized honey bees will send out proportionally more bees in a defensive response, leading to more stings. "If I'm working around one of my European honey bee colonies and I knock on it with a hammer, it might send out five to ten individuals to see what's going on. They would follow me perhaps as far as my house and I might get stung once," said Ellis. "If I did the same thing with an Africanized colony, I might get 50 to 100 individuals who would follow me much farther and I'd get more stings. It's really an issue of scale," he said. Africanized honey bees are also much more sensitive to potential threats. "You could be mowing a lawn a few houses away and just the vibrations will set them off," Rangel said. There are multiple reports of people cutting into colonies when trimming trees, clearing brush or doing landscaping. In some cases tree trimmers set off an attack merely by throwing a rope over a branch. In toxicology, researchers speak of the LD50, the lethal dose required to kill 50% of those exposed to it, said Rangel. For honeybee stings, it's calculated at about 9 stings per pound of weight. So half of people who weigh 150 pounds might die if they got 1,350 stings. That's unlikely with Western honey bees, but can happen with Africanized bees. In 2022, an Ohio man suffered 20,000 bee stings when cutting tree branches. He survived but only after being put in a medically-induced coma. At least 13 state have reported Africanized honeybees. In the south, southern Florida has the highest numbers. "From Tampa to Orlando to Daytona, south of that a large percentage of the feral bee population are of African decent. North of that we don't have much," said Ellis. Africanized bees have also been reported in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, though they don't seem to thrive in those wetter environments as much. The bees have found a natural home in the Southwest, in part because the landscape is much like the arid and semi-arid parts of Africa they're originally from. Feral colonies are common in southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and especially Texas. They've also been seen in southwest Arkansas, southern Utah and about two-thirds of Oklahoma, said Szalanski. There are around 20,000 species of bees on the planet and only 12 of them are honey bees. Of those, 11 are found in Asia and only one in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It is called Apis mellifera, the Western honey bee, said Jamie Ellis, a professor of honey bee research at the University of Florida. There are multiple subspecies of Apis mellifera. It was one of these, the East African lowland honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata), that was imported to Brazil in the 1950s. In the areas where East African lowland honey bees live, they have many predators so they've evolved to be more defensive, said Ellis. "They're not really aggressive, they're not just looking for a fight," he said. "They're just trying to communicate that, 'You are too close to us. We don't want you here – go away.'" That can feel pretty scary when they're coming after you, said Rangel. She's done research on bees in Belize, where people keep hives far from their homes and livestock and put on their protective beekeeping clothing in their trucks before getting out near a hive. "They can pursue you in your vehicle for a mile," she said "The only thing preventing them from killing you is the veil. It's like a cloud of bees that all want to sting you. It's scary." Africanized honeybees are a cross between Western honey bees, from Europe and the East African lowland honey bee. They first occurred in 1956, when a prominent Brazilian geneticist, Warwick Kerr, brought African bees to Brazil to hybridize them with Western honey bees from Europe, which didn't do well there. His plan was to breed bees that were better adapted to Brazil's climate while retaining the gentleness and high honey-producing traits of the Western honey bees. He didn't get the chance. A year later, 26 Africanized queen bees were accidentally released into a nearby forest, where they thrived, said Kirk Visscher, an emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. "The beekeeping industry in those areas is now far more vital than it was – they just have mean bees," he said. That hybrid between the two subspecies, called Africanized honey bees, began to make its way north, arriving in south Texas in 1990. "They spread a lot quicker than what people thought was possible. They never thought they could get from Brazil to Texas in a span of less than 40 years," said Allen Szalanski, a professor of entomology at the University of Arkansas. "But they did." The two bee subspecies are impossible to differentiate without either DNA analysis or careful observation of their wing vein patterns. It is their behavior that sets them apart. Most of the danger is from feral hives in the wild. Beekeepers carefully manage their hives to keep Africanized queens out. Because bees are so critical to agriculture, the movement of bees is regulated in many states. Most have a bee inspector to oversee the process. Currently a total of 38 states regulate the movement of honey bees within the United States and require a permit or health certificate to do so. Four states, Arizona, Kansas, North Dakota and Oregon, have no regulations on the movement of bees, according to research published in 2022. Another eight states have no regulations requiring permits or health certificates for the interstate movement of bees. Scientists who study bees emphasize that while Africanized honey bees are more defensive, they hold a lot of promise for overall honey bee health because they're more pest and disease resistant and are very genetically diverse. That's important because honey bees play a critical role in agriculture and the environment and have been subject to large die-offs in the past two decades. In 2017, one-third of the nation's hives perished. Breeding and even gene manipulation could result in better – and gentler – bees, said Ellis. "Although they have heightened defensive behaviors, science may be able to maximize their positive traits and minimize their negative traits," he said. Because of their highly defensive nature, if you encounter aggressive bees, the best response is to leave – fast. "Get away as quickly as possible. Don't jump in water, don't swat with your arms. Just run away as as fast as you can," said Ellis. "You might want to pull your shirt up around your nose and mouth to protect against stings that could cause swelling of your airway." In general, the biggest threats are to tethered or penned livestock and pets that can't get away as well as humans using heavy equipment who accidentally get too close to a hive without being able to hear the angry buzzing of the bees. Once you've evacuated the area, call for professional help. "If you're in a rural area, it's very likely these bees have been Africanized," said Rangel. Nobody should try to deal with a colony on their own "just to save a few bucks," she said. "You don't want to mess with them." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Killer bees' spreading across US leave a trail of death and terror

Politico

3 hours ago

• Politico

Magistrate judge rejects Trump admin bid to jail Kilmar Abrego Garcia ahead of trial

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man whose illegal deportation became a high-profile symbol of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration-enforcement policies, may not be held in jail pending trial on immigrant smuggling charges he was abruptly returned to the U.S. to face earlier this month, a federal magistrate judge ruled Sunday. Despite the decision by Nashville-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, Abrego is unlikely to be released anytime soon. The Justice Department immediately filed an appeal and there is an order to keep him in immigration custody, at least in the near term. Still, the ruling is a blow to the nascent criminal case, which alleges Abrego regularly drove undocumented immigrants across the U.S. for years as part of an international human smuggling ring. Holmes said prosecutors failed to produce enough plausible evidence that Abrego posed a danger to the community, was likely to flee or that he victimized minors while he allegedly transported immigrants across the country. And she repeatedly described the evidence presented by prosecutors as strained, unreliable and contradictory. While Trump has insisted that Abrego is a member of the violent MS-13 gang, Holmes said the proof prosecutors presented of his gang ties during a daylong court hearing in Nashville earlier this month didn't amount to much. 'Given the volume of resources committed to the government's investigation of Abrego since April 2025…the Court supposes that if timely, more specific, concrete evidence exists of Abrego's alleged MS-13 gang membership or a consistent pattern of intentional conduct designed to threaten or intimidate specific individuals, the government would have offered that evidence,' the judge wrote. Holmes also noted that, while MS-13 has been tied by the government to violent crimes and a variety of other offenses, 'Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind.' In fact, Holmes said the contention that Abrego was in the gang at all was built on 'double hearsay' that was at times inconsistent. Holmes repeatedly noted that the government's case for detaining Abrego pending trial was built upon multiple layers of hearsay that sometimes 'defy common sense' and were often drawn from statements of cooperating witnesses with extensive criminal history who are seeking favors from federal prosecutors. Prosecutors said Abrego might flee because he could effectively receive a life sentence, based on the possibility of up to 10 years in prison for each immigrant he transported. But the judge said the prosecution's calculation was wrong, and she observed that past sentences for charges similar to Abrego's were not nearly that steep, averaging around 12 months. 'The Court is unconvinced that the potential sentence Abrego faces if convicted as charged is so extraordinary as to compel finding that this case involves a serious risk of flight,' Holmes wrote. Prosecutors also sought Abrego's pretrial detention based on claims that his alleged crimes involved minors. A Homeland Security Investigation agent testified that 'cooperators' said Abrego drove an SUV-loaded with undocumented immigrants from Houston to Maryland sometimes as often as three to four times a week with his own children in the vehicle, but Holmes said the accounts did not seem plausible. 'The sheer number of hours that would be required to maintain this schedule, which would consistently be more than 120 hours per week of driving time, approach physical impossibility,' the judge wrote. A Justice Department spokesperson had no immediate comment. But federal prosecutors quickly appealed Holmes' ruling to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, the Obama-appointed trial judge ultimately slated to preside over the case. The ruling is the latest twist in a saga that has resulted in multiple black eyes for Trump's mass deportation policy, including a rebuke from the Supreme Court and a slew of federal judges who found Abrego was denied due process when he was summarily deported to his native country in March. Abrego was among hundreds of immigrants abruptly arrested and delivered to El Salvador on three flights that also included people targeted by Trump under an unprecedented invocation of wartime deportation powers. Though Abrego wasn't among that group, the administration labeled him as an MS-13 member and said he was not entitled to much, if any, due process as a result of Trump's determination. However, at the time of his deportation, Abrego was subject to a 2019 immigration court order barring his deportation to El Salvador, where a judge concluded Abrego was likely to face persecution and violence. The administration acknowledged the error in response to a lawsuit filed by Abrego and his family, but for weeks the administration resisted court orders demanding officials attempt to secure his release from Salvadoran custody and return to the United States. While Abrego was still in a Salvadoran jail last month, U.S. prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment of him in connection with a 2022 traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Tennessee. Prosecutors say Abrego was driving an SUV with nine undocumented immigrants in it, and that he regularly ferried immigrants between Texas and Maryland for $1000 to $1500 a trip as part of an international ring that helped people cross into the U.S. illegally. Abrego's defense lawyers contend the criminal charges amount to retaliation for the attention his case drew to the Trump administration's hastily executed deportation of hundreds of men to a notorious, anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador in March. Prosecutors insist that Abrego will remain in immigration custody even if he's released to await trial on the criminal charges. However, if that were the case, he could seek bond from an immigration judge.

Yahoo

6 hours ago

• Yahoo

Heartbreaking Video Shows 20-Year-Old Texas Woman's Final Moments Shortly Before She Went Missing on a Jet Ski

A 20-year-old woman died after falling off a jet ski on Lake Houston in Texas on Tuesday, June 17 The woman, Ashley Gil, sent a lighthearted video of herself riding a jet ski to her boyfriend just hours before the incident Investigators are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding Ashley's deathA 20-year-old Texas woman died after falling off a jet ski, just hours after sending a lighthearted video to her boyfriend. Ashley Gil disappeared in an area of Lake Houston in Deussen Park after falling off a jet ski on Tuesday, June 17, and her body was recovered two days later on Thursday, June 19, according to the Houston Police Department (HPD), per local news outlet KHOU 11. Ashley was allegedly not wearing a life jacket when she fell from the jet ski, which was carrying multiple people at the time, per the outlet. PEOPLE reached out to the HPD for comment on Sunday, June 22, but did not receive an immediate response. In a statement to ABC 13 Houston, Ashley's boyfriend, Jason Rogriguez, said that he was out of town working the day of the incident, and he received a video of Ashley having fun on the jet ski at about noon that day, several hours before she allegedly fell. She was wearing a life jacket in the video, which he shared with the outlet. Jason also told ABC 13 that he and Ashley's loved ones still have questions regarding what occurred that day. Investigators are awaiting the results of Ashley's autopsy to confirm her cause of death, and they are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, per ABC 13. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. A press release from the Office of Commissioner Rodney Ellis stated that Deussen Park was closed on June 17 and would remain closed on Wednesday, June 18, while police worked with search and rescue teams to locate the victim. In a later statement shared on June 19, Ellis confirmed that the body of a 'young woman' had been found. 'My heart goes out to her family, her loved ones and everyone affected by this tragic loss,' he said. Ashley's sister, Kathy Gil, has since created a GoFundMe to help her mother pay for funeral expenses for Ashley, as well as any other unexpected costs that may arise as a result of their loss. 'Ashley was a bright light in the lives of so many, full of love, laughter and kindness. She had an incredible spirit that touched everyone around her. Her absence leaves a deep void in the hearts of our family, friends, and all who knew her,' the GoFundMe reads. The GoFundMe has raised nearly $8,000 toward a goal of $10,000 as of Sunday, June 22. Read the original article on People