jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Alpena defense attorney Denise Burke, who represents many people with mental illnesses, discusses the role of police and the courts in getting needed treatment for people in crisis.
ALPENA David Hainsworth was off his medications and manic the day he talked to several children as he walked past their Alpena home in December 2019.
The man offered them a ride to school, the children told their bus driver, according to the police reports, court records, and interviews with people involved in Hainsworth’s case from which this story is drawn.
Hainsworth who lives just down the street from the children didn’t touch them, make threatening gestures, or own a car.
News Staff Writers
Photo Illustration by Justin A. Hinkley
This collage of News archive photos shows, in the background, firefighters battling the John A. Lau blaze in July, and, foreground, from left to right, Style Wherehouse owner Jessica Krueger in June after J.C. Penney announced its closure, Alpena nurse Katherine Watts in May while helping the coronavirus fight in Detroit, and Lucas Moquin, then artistic director of Thunder Bay Theatre, after examining damage to the theater from the adjacent fire at John A. Lau.
ALPENA When this year’s New Year’s revelers belt out “Auld Lang Syne,” they’ll gladly call 2020 an old acquaintance best never brought to mind.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News File Photo
Investigators review the scene of a barn fire on Long Lake Road where police found the bodies of two people in the debris in this August 2020 News archive photo. Police later confirmed the bodies were brothers Jim and Mike Polluch.
ALPENA For the first time since 2010, police in Alpena County opened multiple murder investigations this year.
In a community where such crime is exceedingly rare there were none in Northeast Michigan in four of the last 10 years, including last year this year’s acts of violence follow a national trend of unexpected violence as the world faced increased stress on many fronts.