Human remains in Alabama believed to be those of missing college student Aniah Blanchard

Skeletal remains found in Alabama on Monday are believed to be those of Aniah Haley Blanchard, the teenage stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris. Blanchard was last seen outside a convenience story on Oct. 23.

The remains were found at approximately 10:45 a.m. in a wooded area in Mason County, near Shorter, Alabama, authorities said.

The district attorney in Lee County, Brandon Hughes, told NBC News that his office had "good reason to believe they are that" of Blanchard.

Blanchard, 19, a student at Southern Union College, was last seen in Auburn, Alabama. Her damaged car was recovered two days after her disappearance about 60 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama.

Authorities had initially said they did not suspect Blanchard was the victim of foul play, but changed their position after the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences examined evidence from her 2017 Honda CR-V.

Police have arrested Antwain Fisher, 35, and Ibraheem Yazeed, 29 on first-degree kidnapping charges in the disappearance of Blanchard.

[SOURCE: NBC NEWS]

Package bombings targeting African Americans in Austin Texas

Package bombs that killed a teenager and wounded two women Monday in Austin are probably linked to a similar bombing that killed a man in the city earlier this month, authorities said, and investigators are considering whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities.

The first of Monday’s attacks killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both whom were black. As police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that blast, officers were called to the scene of another explosion that badly injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman. She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.

Authorities suspect that both of Monday’s blasts are linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages.

The three explosions occurred in different parts of Austin. Monday’s first explosion happened at a home near the city’s Windsor Park neighborhood and about 12 miles from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House. His death was initially investigated as suspicious, but is now viewed as a homicide.

Monday’s second explosion happened in the Montopolis neighborhood, near the airport and about five miles south of the day’s first blast.

In at least the first two blasts, the packages were left overnight on the victims’ doorsteps and were not mailed or sent by a delivery service. He said neither the U.S. Postal Service nor private carriers such as UPS or FedEx have any record of delivering the package to the home, where Monday’s explosion occurred.

“There are similarities that we cannot rule out that these two items are, in fact, related,” Manley said.

Investigators have not determined a motive for the attacks, but it is possible that the victims could have been targeted because of their race, he said.

“We don’t know what the motive behind these may be,” Manley said. “We do know that both of the homes that were the recipients of these packages belong to African-Americans, so we cannot rule out that hate crime is at the core of this.”

Special Agent Michelle Lee, a San Antonio-based spokesman for the FBI, said the agency responded to both events and was assisting Austin police, who were leading the local investigation. She said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was leading the federal investigation.

[SOURCE: KOCO NEWS]