Missing Persons

A judge ordered all three men jailed in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager freed from custody today. Police officer Adolfo Richardson said the investigation was continuing. Prosecutors appealed the order allowing the conditional release of Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot, who turned 18 in jail, is also to be released conditionally. All reportedly were seen with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway the night she disappeared. They deny any wrongdoing.

A plane crashed into the sea off Venezuela with 14 people on board, including eight Italians and a Swiss citizen. There was no immediate report on casualties. Search teams fanned out by air and sea to look for the twin-engine plane, which left Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas and hit the sea about 24 miles from Los Roques islands, said Gen. Antonio Rivero, Venezuela's emergency management director. Rivero said the five Venezuelans aboard included the pilot and co-pilot.

Heavy snow and high winds hampered the search for six snowmobilers from New Mexico last seen Friday near a 10,000-foot mountain pass in southern Colorado. Search and rescue workers were looking for the snowmobilers near 10,222-foot Cumbres Pass just north of the New Mexico state line, said a spokeswoman with the Colorado State Patrol. As much as 4 feet of snow has fallen in the area since the families went missing.

The life of Darrin Bunker, described by family members as an enigmatic loner, has taken a perplexing twist after his sailboat was found bobbing off Hawaii last weekend with no sign of him. He had left Dana Point Harbor three months earlier, bound for San Diego. The 30-foot vessel, damaged by fire and its mast broken, was found drifting off the Kauai coast on Sunday by fishermen. It was still stocked with provisions and Bunker's laptop computer was still aboard.

Rescuers continued to hold out hope Saturday that they would find a retired schoolteacher from North Hollywood who got lost on a hike during last weekend's heavy storms in the San Bernardino Mountains. Dean Christy, 62, is an avid hiker and an experienced outdoorsman, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller. "We are hopeful he was able to establish a shelter to get out of the weather and that he will be able to survive this," she said.

Dozens of volunteers continued to search Sunday for a hiker who used a cellphone to make a distress call from the San Bernardino Mountains more than a week ago. Eighty volunteers scoured mountains around the Green Valley Lake Campground for Dean Christy, an experienced outdoorsman who had gone for a hike when he was overtaken by bad weather Jan. 4. Mild temperatures this week led to renewed searching by crews using dogs, aircraft and helicopters equipped...

A Mission Viejo woman visiting the Caribbean island St. Martin vanished a week ago while on a nighttime walk to a casino, her husband said Friday. Leta Lynn Cordes was last seen Jan. 11 shortly before 11 p.m. when she left their vacation home for the Westin St. Martin hotel to gamble, her husband, Frank Cordes, said. "The Westin is about 10 minutes away walking time," Cordes said in a telephone interview from the island. "She had made that walk before."

The bodies of a family reported missing more than a week ago were found in a car submerged in a creek, authorities said in Sparta. Foul play was not suspected, state trooper Chip Perry said.

A Mission Viejo woman who disappeared this month while reportedly walking to a casino on the Caribbean island St. Maarten never arrived at the resort, a spokeswoman said. Frank Cordes, 42, said his wife, Leta Lynn Cordes, 49, left their island vacation home -- where they had gone to spend the holidays -- about 11 p.m. Jan. 11 and walked to the Westin St. Maarten Hotel, about 10 minutes away.

A body found in a San Diego alley is believed to be that of a Huntington Beach man missing for several days, police said Tuesday. Dane Williams, 23, was last seen by friends about 1:30 a.m. Saturday leaving a bar in the Gaslamp Quarter, where he had been attending a trade show with his employer, surf clothing manufacturer Hurley International. About 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, police found a body they believe is Williams' wrapped in a blanket.