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Police and firefighters work on the scene where three people were killed and two others injured after an airplane crashed in a field northwest of the main runway at Erie Municipal Airport while coming in for a landing in Erie, Colo., Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014. (AP Photo/The Daily Camera, Cliff Grassmick)
Police and firefighters work on the scene where three people were killed and two others injured after an airplane crashed in a field northwest of the main runway at Erie Municipal Airport while coming in for a landing in Erie, Colo., Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014. (AP Photo/The Daily Camera, Cliff Grassmick)

Small-plane crash kills 5 near Denver

ERIE, Colo. -- All five people aboard a small plane that crashed near an airport north of Denver have died, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The Piper PA-46 airplane crashed near the Erie Municipal Airport about 11:50 a.m., said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Erie police Cmdr. Lee Mathis said the six-passenger plane crashed a few hundred yards northwest of the runway, but he did not know if it was landing or taking off. A photo of the crash site posted on the Boulder Daily Camera's website showed the mangled wreckage of the plane, which crashed into a grassy field.

Jan Culver told the newspaper she was with a friend in a pasture near the airport when she heard the plane and saw it flying "really, really low."

She saw a small cloud of dust as the plane crashed and, because she has some medical knowledge, went to the scene to help, Culver said.

"It was a plane upside down with some folks already out of the plane," she said.

The Denver Post reported that safety board records show the airport was the scene of three crashes in 2013 and two in 2012. There were no fatalities in those accidents.

Mom stands to profit from girl's death

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A special education teacher accused of killing her severely disabled 8-year-old daughter by withholding food and medical care could inherit nearly $1 million from the girl's trust fund -- even if she's convicted.

Nicole Diggs, 32, and her husband, Oscar Thomas, have pleaded innocent to charges of negligent homicide and child endangerment in the 2012 death of Alayah Savarese, who was the beneficiary of a trust fund created from the settlement of a malpractice suit that stemmed from complications during her birth.

Prosecutors in Westchester County say Alayah "was not provided required daily food"; did not receive necessary medical treatment; was often left unattended; and was frequently kept home from school, depriving her of physical and occupational therapy.

Authorities say Alayah suffered lacerations, bruises and welts from the neglect.

Police probe death of pregnant woman

BAY SHORE, N.Y. -- A homicide squad in New York is investigating the death of a pregnant woman found with multiple gunshot wounds inside her car. Her fetus also died.

Suffolk County police say they responded to a call of gunshots Saturday night and found Milagro G. Canjura unresponsive outside her home in Bay Shore on Long Island.

She was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she and the fetus were pronounced dead.

Neighbor Margarita Hill said she heard what she now believes to be three gunshots and initially thought it was a celebration. She said Canjura was friendly but largely kept to herself.

Police didn't know how far along Canjura was in her pregnancy.

Team: Utah rock art drawn more recently

SALT LAKE CITY -- Life-size figures sketched into red rock cliffs in Canyonlands National Park were drawn 1,000 years more recently than what had long been believed, a team of Utah State University scientists discovered about the world-renowned rock art.

The team used modern luminescence dating techniques to analyze when the art went up in what is known as the "Great Gallery" in southeastern Utah's Horseshoe Canyon. The researchers believe the figures were created 1,000 to 2,000 years ago instead of the previously thought 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.

The study suggests the drawings may been done as man transitioned to a culture of farming and away from hunting and gathering, said David Whitley, one of the foremost experts on rock art in North America.

-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

A Section on 09/01/2014

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