washoe county

The Nevada Highway Patrol say a Sparks woman missing over two weeks has been found dead, the apparent victim of a single vehicle rollover crash near Sand Harbor

72-year-old Betti Jean Fernandes left a home on Millstone Court to go for a drive Monday, November 30, 2015 and did not return. Her family had not heard from her since.

A photographer was in the area when he spotted the wreckage with Fernandes' body inside on December 14. The southbound travel lane of SR28 was shut down for several hours while the crash scene was investigated.

Two Plumas Lake, Calif., residents found themselves in the Washoe County Jail on Sunday after Nevada State Troopers found 63 pounds of marijuana in the back of their car.

At 11:10 a.m. on December 6, Troopers pulled over a white Ford Expedition with New York registration tags for a moving violation on I80 near Robb Drive. The car was occupied by Patrick Fay, 64, and Corinne Fay, 57.

The National Weather Service has upgraded the system heading to the Sierra. They have put in a Winter Storm Warning from noon Tuesday, November 24 to 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Since the storm is coming from the north, forecasters expect snow to hit Washoe County by 10 a.m. and South Lake Tahoe by 12:00 p.m.

Holiday travelers can expect roads to be impacted with heavy snow Tuesday afternoon and evening, and slick roads on Wednesday.

A high wind warning is in effect from 4 p.m. Monday until noon on Tuesday, prior to the snow falling.

All six vehicles pulled out of Kiowa Ponds by volunteers from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office HASTY Team on Make A Difference Day, October 24 were reported as stolen according to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.

Five of the cars were reported stolen between 1996 and 1998, the sixth in 2007. Three of the vehicles were reported stolen in Reno, two from Sparks and one from Sacramento, CA. All agencies involved have been notified of the recovery.

Update 7 a.m. 10/14/15:

Dianne Thacher is no longer missing and returned to her dorm room at Sierra Nevada College Tuesday afternoon. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that she is safe, not injured and that there was no foul play associated with her disappearance.

The FBI and Placer County Sheriff’s Office are seeking the public’s help in identifying the person or persons responsible for vandalizing churches in the North Lake Tahoe area.

Between April 4 and September 14, 2015, multiple churches were vandalized, including one in Kings Beach and one in Tahoe City. One religious statue and exterior walls were spray-painted with offensive statements. Detectives are working with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, which has also had several churches vandalized in the Incline Village area.

The Reno Gazette-Journal filed a lawsuit Friday against the city of Sparks in an effort to compel them to release the names of medical marijuana business licensees.

As the newspaper expands its coverage of Nevada’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry, the RGJ has requested and collected copies of current business licenses for cultivation centers, dispensaries and production facilities in the area. Reno and Washoe County both have policies to release all of the information that the licenses entail.

A Carson City teenager died Saturday after authorities were called to Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe for an accident on the water. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong confirmed the victim is a 15-year-old Carson High School student.

The teen’s name has not been released. A chaplain from Carson City has notified the parents, said Furlong. The teen died after he was taken to a Reno hospital after emergency crews were called to Sand Harbor at around noon Saturday. Washoe County authorities would not confirm if it was a possible drowning.

Design Workshop, the company behind several recent South Lake Tahoe projects, won two awards from the Washoe County Open Space and Regional Park Commission.

The company, who has an office on the South Shore, has completed projects in 30 countries over the last 45 years. They received the Elmer H. Anderson Parks Excellence Award for the work they have done to make the Ballardini Ranch Trailhead project a success. The project team also included Wood Rodgers, Spanish Springs Construction and Angie Persigehl.

A hang-glider was found dead Friday afternoon near Slide Mountain, Washoe County Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Harmon said.

The victim has not yet been identified, Harmon said, and has been described only as an adult male. No other information was available.

Dispatch received word of the man going down at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The victim was discovered at 4 p.m. by air south of the Slide Mountain ski area after several agencies and groups of volunteers were unable to locate him through a ground search, Harmon said.

Several counterfeit bills have been used for transactions on the west slope of El Dorado County, even days after the arrest of one suspect. On May 8, the Sheriff Deputies were called to the Round Table Restaurant in Pollock Pines after a man tried to buy food with a counterfeit $100 bill. He and a woman left before deputies arrived but a description of the pair and their vehicle was provided to EDCSO.

Reno resident Rodney Skan, age 60, plead guilty on April 8 in Washoe County to a charge of stalking after he admitted to videotaping four Reno high school girls during the fall of 2013. Police found 175 hours of footage in his motel room of the girls, ages 14, 15 and two 17-year-olds taken at local high school girls sporting events. Skan fixated on particular girls, following them to multiple games throughout the season.

Mark Allen Smith, a 1982 graduate of South Tahoe High, was stabbed to death in Sparks, NV on March 9, 2015.

Sparks Police were called out to a home at 11 Vista de Lago at 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning. When they arrived they found Smith with a single stab wound to the chest. He was transported to Renown Medical Center where he died later that morning.

With over 200 students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District not immunized against the measles, district officials are monitoring the situation and may even exclude those children from attending classes.

Even though there are no cases in El Dorado County as of yet, the cases in Washoe County and Bay Area are of concern.

Three have been arrested after a monthlong investigation into methamphetamine trafficking in the Dayton and Moundhouse areas, the Lyon County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday night.

The investigation, which ended Jan. 21, led to the seizure of a pound of methamphetamine, eight firearms, and $4,500 in cash and involved two search warrants in the Dayton and Moundhouse area. Each of the three suspects are being held on $1 million bail.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board released figures Friday that show the Douglas County casinos on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe had a net loss of over $89 million in Fiscal Year 2014. Their total gaming revenue was $184,671,937 which is down 6.1% from the previous year. Total revenue including hotel, food and beverage was $337,090,380, down 3.6%.

In Nevada there were 270 casinos which grossed more than $1 million in FY2014. Together they took in $23,075,800,492 and is a net loss of $743,688,008.

A New Year's Day head-on collision on Mt. Rose Highway left one person dead, two sent to Renown Hospital by helicopter with major injuries and one taken by ambulance with serious injuries. The accident happened when a 1998 Isuzu Rodeo crossed over the center line and struck a 2003 Jeep Liberty. All three occupants of the Liberty were taken to the Reno hospital.

The driver of the Isuzu left the scene on foot after the accident which occurred just after 6 p.m. Witnesses said he was bleeding and looked injured.

State Route 28 on the East Shore of Lake Tahoe from Incline Village to the intersection with Highway 50 is set to receive $12.5 million in improvements.

The Washoe County Commissioners approved a Federal Lands Access Program Memorandum of Agreement for federal funding for the design and construction of the improvements.

7/23/14 update: After a manhunt lasting several hours, Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputies located Anthony Robert Diaz on July 22, 2014 at approximately 11 p.m. walking near Pine Nut Road in Gardnerville. Diaz’ 12 year old son was with him, and was safely recovered and returned to his mother. Diaz was arrested for ex-felon possession of a firearm, and child endangerment. Diaz remains in custody in the Douglas County Jail in Minden, and his bail has been set at $50k.

The official dedication of South Lake Tahoe's 1.2-mile shared-use bike path that connects Elks Point and Round Hill Pines and provides access to Rabe Meadow with Nevada Beach and Round Hill Pines Resort will be held on Thursday, June 19 at 12 p.m.

The second segment of the Stateline-to-Stateline Bikeway, South Shore Demonstration Project adds to the existing path for a total of 2.2 miles. Meanwhile, the North Demonstration Project is expected to begin construction in 2015 and the first phase will connect Incline Village to Sand Harbor State Park.

After hiking up a 20 percent grade about 1,300 feet above Lake Tahoe, Dan Dominy stopped to admire the view.

Dominy and the rest of his group had crossed private property owned by David Duffield, the billionaire founder of PeopleSoft, to get to the massive steel wheel and timbers that were once part of the Incline Flume which in the late 19th century moved logs up the mountainside from a mill near the lake.

"We all have seen the photos but you don't get it if you don't touch that lumber," said Dominy of the Incline Bull Wheel.

A coalition of all counties present at the lake along with residents, environmental groups, legislators and business groups were behind the Tahoe Regional Plan and urged its adoption in 2012. Since that time, the Sierra Club and "Friends of the West Shore" have sued (in February 2013) to oppose the plan, lost their motion (April 2014) and now, as of May 7, have filed an appeal to the court's decision to uphold the 2012 Lake Tahoe Regional Plan.

4:55 pm update - It has just been reported by the Washoe County Coroner's Office that a second victim in the accident has died. Munoz passed away Wednesday afternoon.

An accident on Tuesday between a car and a big rig on Highway 50 near Dayton, NV has claimed the life of 18 year old David Arroyo Lamas.

Organizers are expecting a large turnout at Saturday's anti-puppy mill demonstration in Reno at the corner of Neil Rd and S. Virginia Street from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

"The event is being called to show the Reno and Sparks City Councils and the Washoe County Commission that citizens mean business when it comes to a ban on the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in retail stores in Reno, Sparks and Incline Village," stated Billy Howard, Founding Organizer for the popular initiative Puppy Mill Free Reno/Sparks/Washoe.